APAM

Artisan Partners Asset Management

Financial services · fiscal year ending 2025-12-31

Through the investors’ lenses

Each of these investors has said in public what they look at before buying. Click a name to see how this company measures up — a tick where it passes one of their tests, a cross where it does not.

Warren Buffett 4/4

Measure	APAM	Checked against
Owner earnings	$299.33m	positive	✓
Return on equity	66.2%	median 11.7%	✓
Debt to equity	0.43x	median 0.79x	✓
Operating margin	33.4%	median 15.0%	✓

Passes 4 of 4. To be clear: Warren Buffett has never said anything about Artisan Partners Asset Management. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →

Terry Smith 3/3

Measure	APAM	Checked against
Return on capital employed	63.6%	median 10.1%	✓
Cash conversion	—	median 1.78x	—
Operating margin	33.4%	median 15.0%	✓
Debt to equity	0.43x	median 0.79x	✓

Passes 3 of 3. To be clear: Terry Smith has never said anything about Artisan Partners Asset Management. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →

Charlie Munger 3/3

Measure	APAM	Checked against
Return on capital employed	63.6%	median 10.1%	✓
Return on equity	66.2%	median 11.7%	✓
Operating margin	33.4%	median 15.0%	✓

Passes 3 of 3. To be clear: Charlie Munger has never said anything about Artisan Partners Asset Management. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →

Chuck Akre 3/3

Measure	APAM	Checked against
Return on equity	66.2%	median 11.7%	✓
Debt to equity	0.43x	median 0.79x	✓
Cash conversion	—	median 1.78x	—
Return on equity, sustained	10 of 10	8 of 10 above median	✓

Passes 3 of 3. To be clear: Chuck Akre has never said anything about Artisan Partners Asset Management. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →

Philip Fisher 3/4

Measure	APAM	Checked against
Operating margin	33.4%	median 15.0%	✓
Net margin	24.3%	median 10.2%	✓
Return on capital employed	63.6%	median 10.1%	✓
Operating margin, held or improving	33.4%	10-yr median 34.6%	✗

Passes 3 of 4. To be clear: Philip Fisher has never said anything about Artisan Partners Asset Management. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →

Walter Schloss 1/1

Measure	APAM	Checked against
Current ratio	—	median 1.25x	—
Debt to equity	0.43x	median 0.79x	✓

Passes 1 of 1. To be clear: Walter Schloss has never said anything about Artisan Partners Asset Management. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →

Benjamin Graham 1/1

Measure	APAM	Checked against
Current ratio	—	2.00x published	—
Long-term debt to working capital	—	1.00x published	—
Positive earnings, ten years running	10 yrs	10 published	✓

Passes 1 of 1. To be clear: Benjamin Graham has never said anything about Artisan Partners Asset Management. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →

Joel Greenblatt 1/1

Measure	APAM	Checked against
Return on capital employed	63.6%	median 10.1%	✓

Passes 1 of 1. To be clear: Joel Greenblatt has never said anything about Artisan Partners Asset Management. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →

Peter Lynch 2/2

Measure	APAM	Checked against
Debt to equity	0.43x	median 0.79x	✓
Net margin	24.3%	median 10.2%	✓

Passes 2 of 2. To be clear: Peter Lynch has never said anything about Artisan Partners Asset Management. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →

Basis	Payout	Why
GAAP earnings	89.6%	why The figure most screeners publish.
Operating cash flow	149.5%	why Absorbs working-capital swings that earnings do not.
Free cash flow	149.8%	why After maintaining the business.

Spread between highest and lowest: 60.2 percentage points. Same filings, different denominators.

Coverage rating 8 / 100 — Not covered. ? Peer standing 2/50Direction 0/30Stability 6/20

Against its own history: 149.8% this year vs 69.4% median over the prior 5. A gap this size is usually a one-off — acquisition, settlement, cyclical trough — not a dividend that stopped being funded. The rating reads the latest year; the table shows the trend.

Free cash flow payout, last 6 years

Fiscal year	Payout
2025-12-31	149.8%
2024-12-31	59.8%
2023-12-31	73.1%
2022-12-31	81.3%
2021-12-31	69.4%
2020-12-31	64.1%

Coverage worsened sharply this year, 59.8% to 149.8%, after no clear trend before it. One year is not a trend, but it is worth knowing which direction the last one moved.

4% of the 25 financial services here pay out more — at the demanding end.

The arithmetic

GAAP earnings — dividends declared per share $3.63 ÷ diluted EPS $4.05
Operating cash flow — dividends paid $257m ÷ operating cash flow $172m
Free cash flow — dividends paid $257m ÷ (operating cash flow $172m − capex $371k)

Where the figures came from

10-K filed 2026-02-20 · accession 0001517302-26-000047

All public at sec.gov — you should not have to take our word for it.

Computed straight from SEC XBRL. A number that looks wrong to you is more useful to us than agreement — tell us.

What the free cash flow payout ratio measures, and where every company here sits on it.

Also on: covered on earnings, not on the basis that applies · rated not covered · when it files.

When this changes

Every figure above is recomputed whenever Artisan Partners Asset Management files. The monthly letter carries what filed, what moved, and one finding computed across every company here.

Get the letter →