Artisan Partners (APAM) AI Stock Analysis

• Market Cap: $2.93B
• Dividend Yield: 8.72%
• Average Volume (3M): 676.43K
• Price to Earnings (P/E): 9.2
• Beta (1Y): 1.13
• Revenue Growth: 5.46%
• EPS Growth: 2.10%
• Country: US
• Employees: 584
• Sector: Financial
• Sector Strength: 70
• Industry: Asset Management
• EPS (TTM): 1.26
• Shares Outstanding: 70,530,754
• 10 Day Avg. Volume: 804,550
• 30 Day Avg. Volume: 676,434
• PEG Ratio: 0.86
• Price to Book (P/B): 6.09
• Price to Sales (P/S): 2.23
• P/FCF Ratio: 6.36
• Enterprise Value/Market Cap: 0.92
• Enterprise Value/Revenue: 2.23
• Enterprise Value/Gross Profit: 3.72
• Enterprise Value/Ebitda: 5.32
• 1Y Price Target: $43.00
• Price Target Upside: 18.52% Upside
• Rating Consensus: Moderate Buy
• Number of Analyst Covering: 3
• EPS Forecast (FY): 4.13
• Revenue Forecast (FY): $1.26B

• Rating: 65 Neutral
• Price Target: $39.00 ▲(7.50% Upside)
• Action: Downgraded Date: 02/21/26
• Date: Action: Downgraded 02/21/26

APAM’s score is primarily capped by financial statement quality concerns—especially the sharp 2025 free cash flow deterioration and meaningful leverage—despite strong reported profitability. Valuation is a clear positive (low P/E and high dividend yield), while the earnings call was constructive (record AUM and margin expansion) but tempered by equity outflows and higher expected 2026 expense levels. Technically, the stock looks range-bound with mixed momentum signals.

Positive Factors

Margin Sustainability

Sustained ~40% adjusted operating margins reflect a high‑margin, scaleable fee model typical of disciplined active managers. Robust margins provide durable earnings power to fund investments, dividends and seeding, and buffer profitability if revenue growth softens.

Scale & Diversified Distribution

Large, diversified AUM across funds and separate accounts strengthens pricing power and distribution reach. Scale supports stable recurring fee revenue, allows cross‑selling, and reduces single‑client dependence, improving resilience across market cycles.

Fee Diversification & Alternatives Growth

Material growth in credit and alternatives diversifies revenue away from volatile public equity flows and concentrated performance fees. Expanding higher‑fee or sticky institutional mandates and alternatives enhances long‑term fee stability and reduces sensitivity to equity outflows.

Negative Factors

Severe Cash Flow Deterioration

A near‑total collapse in free cash flow is a structural red flag for capital allocation durability: it constrains dividends, buybacks, seeding and reinvestment, and raises questions about the convertibility of reported earnings into spendable cash if the pattern persists or recurs.

Meaningful Leverage

Elevated leverage increases financial sensitivity to earnings volatility in an asset manager with a relatively small equity base. If AUM or fees decline, interest and principal obligations could strain flexibility and amplify downside to returns on equity and capital return programs.

Concentrated Equity Outflows

Large, strategy‑concentrated outflows highlight product concentration and the stickiness risk of key equity mandates. Persistent redemptions from a few flagship strategies can materially reduce fee revenue and undermine the firm’s scale advantages over multiple quarters.

Artisan Partners Business Overview & Revenue Model

Company Description

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. It manages separate client-focused equity and fixed income portfolios. The firm invests in the public equity and fixed income markets across the globe. It invests in growth and value stocks of companies across all market capitalization. For fixed income component of its portfolio the firm invests in non-investment grade corporate bonds and secured and unsecured loans. It employs fundamental analysis to create its portfolios. Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. was founded in 1994 and is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with additional offices in Atlanta, Georgia; New York City; San Francisco, California; Leawood, Kansas; and London, United Kingdom.

How the Company Makes Money

Artisan Partners primarily makes money by charging investment management fees based on assets under management (AUM). These fees are typically calculated as a percentage of average AUM for each strategy and are recognized as revenue over time as advisory services are provided. The firm’s main revenue streams generally include: (1) Investment management fees: recurring fees earned from managing mutual funds and other pooled vehicles, as well as separate accounts for institutional and other clients; fee rates vary by product/strategy and client type. (2) Performance-based fees (when applicable): certain mandates or products may include incentive/performance fees tied to returns versus agreed benchmarks or hurdles; these are less predictable and can vary materially with investment performance and contract terms. (3) Other revenue: may include administrative, shareholder servicing, or distribution-related revenues/fees associated with certain products or arrangements; if such items exist, they are typically smaller than management fees. Key factors influencing earnings include net client cash flows (subscriptions/redemptions), market performance (which changes AUM and thus fee revenue), product mix (different fee rates across strategies and vehicles), and retention/expansion of distribution relationships (e.g., platforms, advisors, and institutional consultants) that affect the firm’s ability to attract and retain assets.

Artisan Partners Financial Statement Overview

Summary

Income statement strength (78) reflects high and fairly consistent profitability with ~40% EBIT/EBITDA margins and revenue growth in 2024–2025. This is offset by balance sheet leverage that is meaningful for the model (63) and, most importantly, a severe 2025 cash flow break (cash flow score 29) that raises quality-of-earnings and durability concerns despite solid reported margins.

Income Statement

Profitability is strong and fairly consistent: net profit margin held in the low-to-mid 20% range across 2023–2025, with EBIT/EBITDA margins around ~40% in 2023–2025. Revenue rebounded in 2024 and accelerated further in 2025 (after a down year in 2023), but the multi-year top-line path is choppy (notably the sharp contraction in 2022), which tempers the score despite healthy margins.

Balance Sheet

Leverage is meaningful for the business model: debt-to-equity has generally been near ~0.8–1.6 over 2020–2025 and moved up again in 2025. Equity has improved versus earlier years, and returns on equity are very high, but that strength is partly driven by a relatively small equity base versus earnings—so the balance sheet reads as profitable but more levered than ideal and somewhat sensitive if earnings soften.

Cash Flow

Cash generation shows a major recent break: operating cash flow and free cash flow fell to about $2.0M in 2025 versus hundreds of millions in prior years, with free cash flow down ~99% year over year. Earlier periods (2020–2024) showed strong cash conversion with free cash flow close to net income, but the 2025 collapse raises a clear quality-of-earnings and durability flag.

Breakdown	Dec 2025	Dec 2024	Dec 2023	Dec 2022	Dec 2021
Income Statement
Total Revenue	1.20B	1.11B	975.13M	993.28M	1.23B
Gross Profit	547.10M	517.68M	445.74M	482.88M	664.18M
EBITDA	488.89M	459.02M	401.61M	329.54M	569.29M
Net Income	290.32M	259.75M	222.29M	206.75M	336.52M
Balance Sheet
Total Assets	1.58B	1.62B	1.41B	1.23B	1.21B
Cash, Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments	255.51M	268.22M	178.47M	143.25M	200.14M
Total Debt	410.21M	300.71M	312.66M	319.90M	299.75M
Total Liabilities	794.87M	868.84M	802.10M	819.97M	801.05M
Stockholders Equity	438.83M	388.92M	324.15M	262.22M	276.20M
Cash Flow
Free Cash Flow	419.91M	368.09M	369.07M	293.05M	392.58M
Operating Cash Flow	420.59M	372.84M	377.71M	312.61M	398.55M
Investing Cash Flow	-25.27M	-24.87M	-67.18M	-63.73M	-26.97M
Financing Cash Flow	-371.04M	-254.22M	-270.63M	-306.40M	-335.43M

Artisan Partners Technical Analysis

• Technical Analysis Sentiment: Negative
• Last Price: 36.28
• 50DMA: Negative
• 100DMA: Negative
• 200DMA: Negative
• MACD: Positive
• RSI: Neutral
• STOCH: Positive

Evaluating momentum and price trends is crucial in stock analysis to make informed investment decisions. For APAM, the sentiment is Negative. The current price of 36.28 is below the 20-day moving average (MA) of 38.84, below the 50-day MA of 40.98, and below the 200-day MA of 41.42, indicating a bearish trend. The MACD of -1.66 indicates Positive momentum. The RSI at 32.63 is Neutral, neither overbought nor oversold. The STOCH value of 12.82 is Positive, not indicating any strong overbought or oversold conditions. Overall, these indicators collectively point to a Negative sentiment for APAM.

Artisan Partners Peers Comparison

Name	Overall Rating	Market Cap	P/E Ratio	ROE	Dividend Yield	Revenue Growth	EPS Growth
FHI	79 Outperform	$4.32B	9.70	35.33%	2.46%	9.32%	53.51%
AB	78 Outperform	$3.51B	12.97	18.76%	8.93%	―	-12.92%
VCTR	70 Outperform	$4.40B	12.51	15.65%	3.00%	33.03%	-3.55%
Sector *	68 Neutral	$18.00B	11.42	9.92%	3.81%	9.73%	1.22%
WT	67 Neutral	$2.13B	15.68	26.49%	0.95%	12.05%	120.13%
APAM	65 Neutral	$2.93B	9.21	73.54%	8.72%	5.46%	2.10%
CNS	65 Neutral	$3.30B	21.00	28.53%	3.92%	12.73%	19.01%

Artisan Partners Corporate Events

Artisan Partners Reports February 2026 Assets Under Management

Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. reported on March 10, 2026 that its preliminary assets under management as of February 28, 2026 totaled $188.5 billion, underscoring the firm’s scale in active investment management. Of this, $92.4 billion was held in Artisan Funds and Artisan Global Funds, while $96.1 billion was managed through separate accounts and other vehicles, reflecting a diversified mix across growth, value, credit, emerging markets, real estate and multi-asset strategies.

The detailed breakdown shows significant concentrations in International Value, Global Value and Non-U.S. Growth strategies, highlighting the firm’s strong positioning in international and global equity markets. The inclusion of custom credit solutions, emerging markets debt, sustainable emerging markets and real estate-focused Grandview Property Partners further illustrates Artisan’s broadened product set aimed at institutional and sophisticated investors, with implications for fee diversification and resilience across market cycles.

The most recent analyst rating on (APAM) stock is a Buy with a $42.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on Artisan Partners stock, see the APAM Stock Forecast page.

Artisan Partners Reports January 2026 Assets Under Management

Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc., a global active investment manager offering multi-asset strategies across equities, credit, emerging markets and real assets, reported preliminary assets under management of $185.3 billion as of January 31, 2026. The firm serves sophisticated clients worldwide through Artisan Funds, Artisan Global Funds, separate accounts, collective investment trusts and private funds.

In its February 10, 2026 release, the company detailed that $90.2 billion of AUM resided in Artisan Funds and Artisan Global Funds, while $95.1 billion was held in separate accounts and other vehicles, underscoring the significance of institutional and customized mandates. The breakdown shows substantial scale in international value, global value and high income credit strategies, highlighting the breadth of its platform and the diversified sources of fee-generating assets for stakeholders.

The most recent analyst rating on (APAM) stock is a Buy with a $50.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on Artisan Partners stock, see the APAM Stock Forecast page.

Artisan Partners Announces Q4 Results and Special Dividend

On January 29, 2026, Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. appointed Ryan G. Von Hoff, previously the company’s Vice President, Assistant Treasurer and Corporate Controller, as Chief Accounting Officer and principal accounting officer, drawing on his experience as Corporate Controller since July 2022 and earlier roles at the firm and Deloitte & Touche LLP. On February 3, 2026, the company reported its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2025, and declared both a quarterly and special annual dividend, underscoring its continued capital return to shareholders, and scheduled a management-led conference call for February 4, 2026 to discuss performance and related updates.

The most recent analyst rating on (APAM) stock is a Buy with a $51.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on Artisan Partners stock, see the APAM Stock Forecast page.

Artisan Partners Reports Strong Year-End Assets Under Management

On January 9, 2026, Artisan Partners Asset Management expanded its board from eight to nine members and appointed Clarence Kane Brenan, CEO of TIFF Investment Management and a former senior Goldman Sachs executive, as a director and member of the Compensation Committee, reinforcing its governance bench with deep institutional investing and private equity experience. Earlier in the month, on January 2, 2026, a company subsidiary closed the previously announced acquisition of Grandview Property Partners, LLC, while on January 12, 2026 the firm reported preliminary assets under management of $179.9 billion as of December 31, 2025, with a nearly even split between its Artisan-branded funds and separate accounts and other vehicles, underscoring the scale and diversification of its platform despite typical year-end distribution-related outflows.

The most recent analyst rating on (APAM) stock is a Buy with a $51.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on Artisan Partners stock, see the APAM Stock Forecast page.