Great West Life Assurance Co. Can purchased a new position in shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM – Get Rating) during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 16,215 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $437,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Strs Ohio raised its position in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 78.4% during the second quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 28,900 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $1,027,000 after acquiring an additional 12,700 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 42.9% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 23,980 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $853,000 after acquiring an additional 7,200 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System raised its position in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 2.3% during the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 18,026 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $641,000 after acquiring an additional 397 shares during the period. Aviance Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Artisan Partners Asset Management during the second quarter worth $1,816,000. Finally, Sigma Planning Corp raised its position in Artisan Partners Asset Management by 2.1% during the second quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 36,610 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $1,302,000 after acquiring an additional 740 shares during the period. 82.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on APAM shares. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management in a research report on Wednesday, October 12th. They set a "hold" rating for the company. TheStreet cut shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from a "b-" rating to a "c+" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from $26.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Artisan Partners Asset Management from $35.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $34.75.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Stock Performance

Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 1st. The asset manager reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.03. Artisan Partners Asset Management had a net margin of 20.82% and a return on equity of 99.80%. The firm had revenue of $226.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $222.60 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.29 EPS. Artisan Partners Asset Management's quarterly revenue was down 28.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. will post 2.6 EPS for the current year.

Artisan Partners Asset Management Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $0.90 per share. This is a positive change from Artisan Partners Asset Management's previous quarterly dividend of $0.56. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.61%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 13th. Artisan Partners Asset Management's payout ratio is presently 76.45%.

About Artisan Partners Asset Management

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Artisan Partners Asset Management, Inc operates as an investment management company, which provides investment strategies to clients globally. It offers investment management services to institutions and through intermediaries that operate with institutional-like decision-making processes and have longer-term investment horizons, by means of separate accounts and mutual funds.

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