EntryPoint Capital LLC Buys Shares of 4,841 Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM)

EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 4,841 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $208,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,097,132 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $348,582,000 after buying an additional 78,979 shares during the period. Napatree Capital LLC raised its stake in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. Napatree Capital LLC now owns 16,542 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $712,000 after acquiring an additional 1,767 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new stake in Artisan Partners Asset Management in the 4th quarter valued at about $852,000. Sei Investments Co. lifted its holdings in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 101,826 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,384,000 after purchasing an additional 5,065 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its position in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 164,039 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $7,062,000 after purchasing an additional 10,120 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.45% of the company’s stock.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Stock Performance

Artisan Partners Asset Management stock opened at $39.11 on Friday. Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. has a 1-year low of $37.89 and a 1-year high of $49.54. The company has a current ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.14 billion, a PE ratio of 10.74 and a beta of 1.83. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $42.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $43.94.

Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The asset manager reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.97 by $0.08. Artisan Partners Asset Management had a net margin of 23.36% and a return on equity of 74.02%. As a group, analysts expect that Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. will post 3.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.11%. Artisan Partners Asset Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 92.31%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on APAM shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Artisan Partners Asset Management from $53.00 to $51.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $44.38.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Profile

Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc is publicly owned investment manager. It provides its services to pension and profit sharing plans, trusts, endowments, foundations, charitable organizations, government entities, private funds and non-U.S. funds, as well as mutual funds, non-U.S. funds and collective trusts.