Artisan Partners price target lowered to $39.50 from $40 at Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs analyst Alexander Blostein lowered the firm’s price target on Artisan Partners to $39.50 from $40 and keeps a Sell rating on the shares. The firm says lower interest rates and “sluggish” deal recovery leave downside risks across most capital markets stocks into the Q3 reports. While prospects of faster rate cuts and stronger equity markets “have propelled the risk-on behavior” across many capital markets stocks, deal activity rates remain sluggish, which is a continued headwind for many alternative managers amid “very stretched” valuation multiples, organic growth for most traditional managers deteriorated in Q3, and lower interest rates present a “meaningful risk” to earnings for most brokers and wealth managers, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Goldman sees the exchanges and trust banks as “relative bright spots” into the Q3 results.