Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (APAM) Q3 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Welcome to the Artisan Partners Asset Management Business Update and Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Artisan Partners Asset Management. Please go ahead.

Welcome to the Artisan Partners Asset Management business update and earnings call. Today's call will include remarks from Jason A. Gottlieb, CEO and CJ Daley, CFO. Following these remarks, we will open the line for questions. Our latest results and investor presentation are available on the Investor Relations section of our website. Before we begin today, I would like to remind you that comments made during today's call including responses to questions, may include forward looking statements. These are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to, the factors set forth in our earnings release and detailed in our SEC filings. These risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from those disclosed today, and we assume no obligation to update or revise any of these statements following the presentation. In addition, some of our remarks today will include references to non-GAAP financial measures. You can find reconciliations of these measures to the most comparable GAAP measures in the earnings release and supplemental materials. Which can be found on our Investor Relations website. Also, please note that nothing on this call constitutes an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell an interest in any artisan investment product or a recommendation for any investment service. I will now turn it over to Jason.

Thank you for joining the call today. Artisan Partners is a talent driven investment platform that brings together exceptional investors, the autonomy to pursue disciplined investment processes, and the resources and business leadership necessary to build enduring investment franchises. We believe this combination differentiates Artisan Partners and drives long term value creation for clients and shareholders. Our third quarter results reflect both the strength and the challenges of our business. While investment performance and client flows were challenged in portions of our equity platform, we continue to demonstrate the growth potential of our expanding credit and alternatives businesses. We are also making meaningful progress broadening our investment capabilities developing new investment vehicles and positioning the platform for future growth. Investment performance is the foundation of everything we do. Our long term investment results across asset classes, investment franchises, investing styles, and inception dates demonstrates the strength and consistency of our platform. At quarter end, 92% of our assets under management outperformed their benchmarks over 10 years and 99% since inception gross of fees. Short term investment performance was less favorable during the quarter, with relative underperformance across several of our larger equity strategies. The 1 and 3 year numbers shown on the slide were particularly impacted by the performance of our international value and global value strategies, both of which have had very strong performance in October. Calculated as of October 26, 75%, 84% of our AUM are outperforming over the trailing 1 and 3 year periods respectively. We continue to see strong results in credit and alternatives. 100% of our credit AUM has outperformed the benchmark over the reported time periods since inception of our first credit franchise, in 2014. EMsights Capital Group has also established an outstanding investment track record. All 3 of the franchise's strategies have generated double digit annualized returns since inception and meaningful excess returns relative to their respective benchmarks. These results demonstrate the breadth of our multi asset investment platform and reinforce our confidence in the long term value of our business. Turning to slide 4, Net client outflows totaled $10.6 billion for the quarter. As previously disclosed, approximately $7.8 billion of the net outflow included $1.9 billion associated with the U. S. Value team wind down and $5.9 billion related to the rebalancing of large global value client relationship. Business development in credit and alternatives remain strong. Combined, our credit and alternative strategies generated $1.1 billion in net inflows during the third quarter, and have raised $3.2 billion year to date. For the quarter, Credit Strategies generated $290 million of net inflows, marking the 17th consecutive quarter of positive credit flows, and we raised approximately $770 million in alternatives. Led by strong growth in the Artisan Global Unconstrained mutual fund. Turning to the next slide, Over the past 5 years, combined credit and alternative AUM has nearly doubled to more than $26 billion increasing from 8% to 15% of firm wide AUM. During that period, we have added custom credit solutions and the floating rate strategy to our. The Artisan credit team's lineup. We have onboarded the EMsights Capital Group and launched Global Unconstrained, emerging market debt opportunities emerging market local opportunities. We have added fixed income talent to the International Value Group and launched the global special situation strategy. And at the beginning of this year, we acquired Grandview Property Partners and recently closed on an anchor investor for their fourth flagship fund. The Artisan Credit team demonstrates what we believe we can accomplish with each of these other franchises. Since launching in 2014, the credit team has established an outstanding investment track record and built a diversified credit business with over $16 billion in assets under management. We see significant opportunities to build on that success by expanding the team's investment capabilities across public and private credit, broadening its geographic reach, and developing new investment vehicles. These initiatives represent the next phase of growth for our credit franchise. Leveraging the team's established investment expertise and our broader operating and distribution capabilities. Across our platform, including equities, we are working with our investment teams to further develop their franchises broaden degrees of freedom, increase the breadth and quality of talent, and expand the ways clients can access their investment expertise. During 2026, we have launched 13 new UCITS fund share classes to complement our expanding reach into The UK and European wealth market. In the fourth quarter, we anticipate launching an ETF share class of the Artisan Select Equity Fund and Artisan Focus Fund to broaden investor access in the wealth market. And we are developing an interval fund structure to bring our public and private credit capabilities to wealth clients in 2027. We believe the opportunity set available to Artisan today is broader than at any point in our history. Have proven our platform works across equities, credit, and alternatives. We are excited about further growing with existing franchises as well as partnering with external talent via lift outs or acquisitions. We can do more and move faster, yet stay true to our principles. Maintaining the highest investment standards, aligning interests, delivering a distraction free investment environment, and maintaining a long term orientation. I will now turn the call over to CJ to discuss our financial results.

Thanks, Jason. Our complete GAAP and adjusted results are detailed in our earnings release. Assets under management ended the quarter at $169 billion, a decrease of 8% from the June quarter and 7% from a year ago. Approximately 75% of the net outflows that contributed to the quarterly AUM decline were attributable to discrete events Jason discussed. Both events had a relatively modest impact on revenues in the quarter. Average assets under management were $180.5 billion, down 1% sequentially and up 2% compared to the September 2025 quarter. Year to date average AUM improved 7% over the prior 9-month period. Revenues for the quarter were $313 million, up 1% from the June quarter, primarily reflecting an additional day during the quarter and a slight increase in our average fee rate, which more than offset the modest decline in average AUM. Compared to the September 2025 quarter, revenue increased 4% driven by higher average assets under management and an increase in our average fee rate. Our weighted average fee rate for the quarter increased to 69 basis points up from the June quarter. The increase primarily reflects the impact of the 2 previously mentioned discrete redemption events. Adjusted operating expenses declined 2% from the June quarter. Primarily reflecting a decline in employee related costs and the continued roll off of seasonal expenses. Offset in part by increased variable incentive compensation associated with increased revenues. Compared to the prior year quarter, adjusted operating expenses increased 5%, primarily reflecting higher employee related and professional fee expenses, as well as the addition of the operating expenses of Grandview Property Partners, which we acquired in January of this year. As a result, adjusted operating income increased 9% sequentially adjusted operating margin expanded 260 points to 35.5%, and adjusted earnings per share increased to $1.03. Compared to the same quarter in 2025, adjusted operating income increased 2% and adjusted earnings per share increased 1%. Our adjusted operating margin declined 70 basis points primarily reflecting the higher operating expense. Year to date, average AUM and revenues increased 7% compared to the first 9 months of last year. Year to date adjusted operating expenses increased 8% reflecting higher incentive compensation associated with increased revenues employee related costs, and the addition of Grand View. Adjusted operating income increased 6% to $307 million, adjusted operating margin was relatively stable at 33%, and adjusted earnings per share increased 6% to $2.84 our non GAAP measures, nonoperating income includes only interest income and expense. Our balance sheet remains strong with $352 million of cash. During the quarter, we renewed and expanded our 5-year revolving credit facility to $150 million. The facility remains unused, and added capacity furthers our flexibility to support future growth. Consistent with our dividend policy, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend $0.88 per share for the September 2026 quarter, representing a 10% increase from the prior quarter and unchanged from a year ago. Our strong balance sheet and cash generation provide the flexibility to continue investing in our business while maintaining an attractive shareholder return profile. Looking ahead, the fourth quarter begins with lower AUM levels and a higher average fee rate as a result of the 2 discrete AUM outflows and lower fee rates. The fourth quarter will also include the annual income in capital gains mutual fund distribution, which we currently estimate will reduce AUM by $2.5 billion for distributions that will not be reinvested. As a reminder, approximately 3% of our AUM is subject to performance fees, with the majority crystallizing on December 31 each year. Last year's fourth quarter included approximately $29 million of performance fees. We are currently projecting a similar contribution this year However, all such fees remain subject to market and performance conditions through the end of the year. That concludes my prepared remarks. I will now turn the call back to the operator.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. Please limit yourself to 2 questions to allow time for other questioners. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question today comes from Kenneth Lee with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning and thanks for taking my question. Just 1 on the interval fund structure that is being developed for next year. Just curious, you talk a little bit more about the opportunity? What sorts of potential demand are you seeing across the wealth clients? And then is this--would this be leveraging some of the existing strategies within the credit teams? Thanks.

Hey, Kenneth. Thanks for the question. Yeah. It will certainly leverage some of the strength that we currently have on the platform, specifically in the credit business. You know, we have we have talked at length about the convergence of capital and the need for you know, more flexible solutions and that the interval fund is clearly an ability to capture that. You know, the crossover between private and public markets, we just see that big convergence, and we are actually seeing a fair bit of, a fair bit of demand. We have been out there talking to several of our key relationships just to gauge their appetite. And I think the reception that we are experiencing at least initially is pretty warm. So it continues to give us confidence that you know, clients are willing to not only continue to evaluate and look at us as a you know, a key leader within the within the credit space, but also provide us with the degrees of freedom that we need to express the views that we have in an effort to produce the best returns possible. And so we are, you know, we are we are pretty confident that this is going to be a an interesting and an important and growing initiative for us when it comes to, just broadening out our credit business.

Great. Very helpful there. And just 1 follow-up, if I may. Wondering if you could just talk a little bit more about some of the RP due diligence activity you have been seeing recently. Let's talk about client sentiment generally across the board. Thanks.

Yeah. it is a it is a good question. it is something that we actually spend a fair bit of time on Kenneth. And, you know, you do not wanna count anything until it is actually in the door. But when we look at. And, you know, everything that is in the RP, and in the. Just overall pipeline, you know, clearly, there is some subjectivity that goes into some of the some of the data, a lot of the data. And the RFP numbers have not really shifted tremendously, you know, quarter-over-quarter versus or year-over-year. However, the pipeline has grown pretty meaningfully. But as I mentioned, it really does not matter to any of us unless it is actually crystallized and brought in the door. But to directly answer your question, we do see a pretty meaningful uptick in the in the dollars associated with the pipeline, but the RFP numbers remaining relatively flat or consistent, you know, from a quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year perspective.

Gotcha. Very helpful there. Thanks again.

The next question comes from Bill Katz with TD Cowen.

Great. Thank you very much. Good morning, everybody. I want to come back to your thoughts on sort of continuing to scale out the credit platform. I think you mentioned that you have opportunities geographically by wrapper, by distribution channel. Could you click in a little bit and maybe give us a sense of where you see the greatest opportunities whether it be in the public-private side, in the private side, Just a bit curious of where you see the best opportunity. Thank you.

Yeah. there is. I think there is multiple ways to grow. Within credit, the first 1 is you know, we have capacity that we can continue to build out and further expand. So we would--I think we would mentioned last quarter, Bill, that we had a nice win in our floating rate business We think that is an area and a path to continued growth. We have got you know, I do not know exactly what the track record longevity is, but it is nearing the 5 year mark. And, you know, that will be a key metric to the returns are good and the pure rankings are solid, and it comes in. Inside of a franchise that is obviously very highly regarded. We think from a alternatives positioning within our credit platform, being able to continue to grow and expand incrementally, the credit opportunities strategy remains very much in place The public private interval fund that I had mentioned, we think is going to be a you know, a strong long term grower if we, in fact, are able to launch, which we have conviction in our ability to get that done. And then the third piece, specifically, just within our credit franchise, is what I mentioned, which is tapping into the European market, in both syndicated the syndicated loan and bond market, but also the potential to do something that is a little bit more unique to us, which is potentially expanding into, CLOs. We also are about to launch I believe it is on November 2, if my memory serves me correctly, we are going to be expanding out our EMsights strategy capabilities within the European market. So we are gonna be launching a UCITS for global unconstrained. And we believe that the appetite for global unconstrained in the European market is going to be very much aligned to how the demand looks like and feels like in The US market. Where we have seen, you know, really nice and meaningful growth on the heels of their strong performance. And so I think those are probably the key levers for us on the existing platform. You know, I can anticipate that there is gonna be some questions as it relates to the pipeline? So maybe I will just hit that as well while we are just talking about it because I think the. You know, if you look. If you split the pipeline up between credit and alternatives, a lot of the opportunity set that we are seeing today right in front of us is in the credit area specifically aligned to wealth. And, you know, similar to, you know, what I mentioned about our pipeline with Kenneth, You know, the pipeline is just that. it is a pipeline until somebody crosses the finish line. Then it is still just an idea that we are we are evaluating and, attempting to make a decision on whether it makes sense for the platform. But I would just highlight that the majority of the opportunity in front of us today feels very much aligned to both credit and to wealth, which as you have heard us talk about, those are 2 very important initiatives that we are trying to continue to build off of.

Great. Thank you. And the other ones, I am going to cheat a little bit, ask a 2 part question. So first part, can you talk a little bit about where you stand in terms of additional M&A to continue to broaden out inorganically? And then just a lesson I think from the last couple of announcements on these large mandates is just concentration risk. So can you talk a little bit about like, the top 5, top 10 clients? What kind of percentage of their AUM or revenues that comprises of? Thank you.

Sure. So on the M&A side, you know, there is just aligned to my prior comment on credit we think that it is gonna come in both lift out form and in M&A, 2 in particular that were you know, we are we are talking to and growing in our conviction are gonna be more along the lines of the M&A. So slightly leaning a little bit more towards the inorganic So that is that is where we are seeing at least on the on the credit side. And I think that is very much aligned to how we are also seeing the pipeline develop on the on the alternative side. Which is really coming in the form of, you know, the 2 or 3 areas that I think are most, most compelling to us are private credit, secondaries businesses, and you know, we are seeing some interesting private equity opportunities primarily in, sector specific. Where we are, we are evaluating a couple of live, live opportunities. I will I will turn it over to CJ. He can talk a little bit about the concentration risk.

Yeah, Bill. I would say, you know, when we think about, you know, our largest clients and concentration, you know, her largest clients are really diversified across, you know, teams, strategies, and channels. If you think about our top 15% to 20% of clients, you know, it is across 6 teams, 9 strategies, And then, you know, on the wealth side, it is across you know, you know, a handful of clients and, in their platform across different channels within the wealth. So it is broadly diversified. And not highly concentrated just with 1 or 2, you know, clients or channels. Or strategies and teams.

Okay. Thank you, guys.

The next question comes from Alexander Blostein with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking the question. Just to expand some of the discussion around some of the recent performance and you guys highlighted that international and global value both have struggled on a 1- to 3-year basis recently. Things have gotten a little bit better, which is encouraging. But how are you messaging, I guess, to clients given the fact that these strategies still quite sizable in the context of the firm. How are you messaging recent performance trends to clients? What kind of potential redemption risk, I guess, you guys still see from these products as we look out over the next 12 to 18 months?

Yeah. I think with every strategy, not specific to global value or international value, I think the great thing about our platform is we have highly sophisticated clients that many of which have been with us for years, if not decades. And so they fully understand and completely appreciate not only the approach that each of our teams take and how they develop their investment strategies and how they invest, But they also, recognize that alpha. With alpha, there is unpredictability. And with alpha, there is also volatility. And so I think a lot of our teams and David and Daniel O'Keefe are no different here where they are talking about the philosophy, the process, and the ability to build a portfolio that in times where performance does not look great relative to a benchmark, that can be sometimes the best opportunity set for them to lean into various markets or existing positions that are unloved. And build a very compelling portfolio. And so you know, q 3 was very difficult. I should have highlighted in my prepared comments, I will highlight it now since you asked the question. If you think about the breadth in the markets, which again goes back to my comment about sophisticated clients, they see this and they recognize it. The breadth in the market is the worst we have experienced since 2001. Of the examples that I would highlight is you know, the markets broadly, if you use the S and P 500, it is 2% from its all time high at the end of Q3. And yet the average stock is about 17% off of its off of its all time high. You can just see the. Really, the lack of breadth and it is it is pretty stark what we are seeing. So when there is a return to normalcy, we think our teams and, you know, David and Daniel will be no different here. They will have the ability to capture that opportunity set in a pretty meaningful way. And so, you know, we are we are continuing to extol the virtues of each of the team's philosophies and processes recognizing that we are staying true to who we are and the disciplines that we undertake. And I think a lot of our clients, you know, recognize a 1- and a 3-year period, you know, that is a relatively short evaluation period even especially for teams that have been in existence for 25 plus years. And even with you know, even in Q3 with the shortfall of performance, you know, both of them were basically at benchmark over a 3 year period. So it was not like we had a massive hole to dig ourselves out of. Now with a 300- to 400-basis-point tailwind coming into October, they are clearly meaningfully ahead over a 1-year and certainly well ahead over a 3-year as well.

Great. that is super helpful context. Thank you, guys. Second question for me. I just wanted to hit on a couple of financial items. TJ, maybe this is for you. On the fee rate, a couple of moving pieces in the quarter. So maybe just give us a sense of the jumping off point for Q4 on the fee rate. But more importantly, given the fact that the business is sort of shifting and there are some know, there is some headwinds on the wrappers, obviously, some of the more active equity business, that tends to be higher fee, has been shrinking, but then you have the olds that are growing and you are expanding into other wealth products within credit, which presumably are at a little more of a healthy fee rate than some of these judicial mandates. So based on kind of where you see the business evolving over the next call it, 1 to 2 years, what is the trajectory for a wide fee rate in your view?

Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for the question, Alexander. You know, I think we sort of highlighted we think the fee rate should be up, you know, commensurate with what we saw at the end of the quarter. Somewhere around 70 basis points, up probably a little over 1 basis point than where we were trending. And, you know, for now, we see that relatively stable. I mean, I think you hit the nail on the head with, you know, free rate trajectory is largely gonna depend on you know, you know, where we see the attrition. You know, obviously, our mutual fund business which has been in decline in the equity space has higher average fee rates. And we have been seeing that offset with higher fee rates in the alt space. So depending on, you know, where the flows outpace each other, you know, you could see us you know, relatively stable, I think, was what our expectation would be before we see any, you know, major trend way. 1 way or the other.

Just to add a little bit to that, the institutional business within equity is clearly where we are seeing a lot of you know, active to passive, some rebalancing activity. Some derisking, so plans that are, you know, hitting their funding targets in the DV market are derisking. And. You know? But those mandates tend to be on the lower end of our fee spectrum just given the size and the scale that they tend to bring to the firm. And then, you know, juxtapose that against where we are, building capacity and capabilities in our existing franchises, some of which we have not talked about. But things like the interval fund, should bring a, you know, a commensurately higher fee level Grandview Property Partners, as I have mentioned, you know, we just closed on our first anchor, and we are gonna be out in the market raising our new, our new flagship series fund. Which should come in at a, you know, commensurately higher fee level given the nature of the asset class You know, we just brought on John Bradnik as a lift out from Sachem Head which we will be launching in a in a long short format, which we believe will come with a higher fee relative to you know, where our existing platform and business is today and, you know, again, some of the R&D on some of the equity teams that we are working on, if we do bring them out in. Into the into the public domain, we think that those will also have a commensurately higher fee level So maybe just to CJ's point that I think the fee might be the same, but I think the offsets will be coming in areas where we think there is, you know, good growth opportunities and certainly, an expectation for you know, long term long term client demand.

And, Alexander, 1 other thing when you think about the short term, obviously, we have greatest opportunity to achieve performance fees in the fourth quarter. So know, we typically see a spike in the overall fee rate, but the referring fee rate, which I talked about at 70 is just so the recurring management fee. The performance fees, if they come to fruition, should spike that a bit a bit in the fourth quarter.

Yep. That makes a lot of sense. Thank you, guys.

The next question comes from John Dunn with Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Maybe on the ETF share classes, there any difference in strategy for selling those? And what is kind of the strategy for pricing them? And are you going to be launching them in kind of phases or all at once?

Yeah, hi, John. Thanks for the question. On the ETFs, the strategy if we. If our anticipated launch is approved--which we still have some regulatory and board hurdles to get through, but we do not anticipate having any problems If they are launched, they will be pari passu to the existing strategies. So we are not we are not looking to compete against ourselves. We are not looking to do it at a lower fee rate. We are really just trying to provide our existing and future clients access to our IP and a wrapper that is clearly the preferred option. And so we are we are going to be staging these launches out, these anticipated launches out over the course of the next several quarters. We are gonna start with the 2 that I would mentioned, Select Equity and the Focus Fund. Those will be hopefully, followed by a few more in Q1. And then, you know, again, several more throughout the course of 2027. So this will be a deliberate approach and process that we are undertaking. But to directly answer your question, we are not competing on fee against ourselves This is really just the ability to, you know, be vehicle agnostic and provide clients with an opportunity and choice in a wrapper that is clearly the preferential option in today's market.

Got it. And then you talked about going more global with some strategies. Could you talk about kind of in terms of international distribution, any differences you are seeing in demand by region or different, like, preferences for strategies in different regions?

Yeah. We are we are we are excited about what we are doing in our non US business as it relates to distribution. You know, similar to what we talked about over the past couple of quarters in the in The US market where we have been expanding. Deliberately expanding our US footprint We are doing the same in the wealth market both in UK, in Europe, and in The Middle East. So we placed a couple of resources in those in those regions. And we are seeing a, you know, meaningful uptick in the in the activity levels, you know, part of the pipeline conversation that I hit on with Kenneth's question. I think a lot of that is also coming in the form of those regions. And we are also, as I mentioned in my prepared comments, you know, we are just trying to stay open for business here and taking away any of the impediments that might be associated with investing on our platform. And so we have deliberately launched several, share classes in areas where we think whether it is a current currency or a reinvestment share class, you know, there is there is different ways to access our platform now that you just were not able to access in the in the past. And this has come from direct feedback through all these client conversations that the new folks are having. You know, it is still early days. The ramp is going to take a little time and, you know, if we see the green shoots that develop in the form of crystallization, then we can continue to add resources into that marketplace. 1 area that we are excited about expanding in is certainly the credit capabilities, which is why and alternatives, which is why we are deliberately launching Deliberately launching the global unconstrained strategy in UCITS form. We have heard time and again that people are looking for diversifiers and we think we have got, you know, 1 of, if not the best in the business, in a, you know, daily liquid wrapper that people are very excited about.

Thank you.

We have a follow-up from Bill Katz with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Great. Thank you very much for taking the extra questions. So just maybe some housekeeping items. CJ, was wondering if you could give us an update on the fixed cost outlook here and maybe how you might be preliminary thinking through 2027. And then thank you for the guide on performance fees. Could you unpack that a little bit in terms of what areas you are seeing the strength in and how we should think about any kind of different payout rate on comp relative to the base business? Thank you.

Yeah. Sure. So with respect to the fixed cost outlook, I think it you know, it remains unchanged from what we gave, at the beginning of the year. So, you know, we guided to mid single digits if you think about excluding the addition of the cost from a Grand View, which we acquired in January. And then the exchange of kicks with the, LTI grant that we did in 2026 with what was rolling off, from the 5-year-earlier grant. So that, that guidance has not changed at all.

And then on the performance fees, I mean, you know, largely, we are seeing you know, the same know, trends that we saw last year. You know, it might prepared remarks, I said, you know, through September 30, we are currently estimating know, a similar, outcome to last year. Obviously, you know, we have a couple months to go with performance so that could change, you know, either to the downside or upside.

But we are also. You know, we are seeing a very good strong performance fee opportunities in our EMsights team, which we have. Which we saw last year, which accounts for know, a significant amount of the performance fee opportunity. Just, you know, a little bit more, know, we have what, 8 accounts or 8 teams that have performance fee accounts and as of right now, 7 of those 8 are in the money.

it is broadly dispersed and diversified across all of our opportunities.

Thank you.

This concludes our question and session and the Artisan Partners Asset Management business update and earnings call. Thank you. You may now disconnect.