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DATE

Wednesday, April 29, 2026 at 11 a.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

  • Chief Executive Officer — Jason A. Gottlieb
  • Chief Financial Officer — Charles James Daley

TAKEAWAYS

  • Assets Under Management (AUM) -- $173 billion as of March 31, representing a 4% decline sequentially and a 7% increase year over year.
  • Average AUM -- $182 billion, up 1% sequentially and up 9% year over year.
  • Firmwide Net Flows -- Net outflows of $3.1 billion, concentrated in select equity strategies due to client de-risking and reallocations.
  • Credit Business Net Inflows -- $800 million, marking the fifteenth consecutive quarter of positive net inflows in credit strategies.
  • Alternatives Net Inflows -- $300 million raised, mostly in the Global Unconstrained strategy.
  • Sustainable Emerging Markets Strategy -- Net inflows of $250 million, with assets under management nearing $3 billion.
  • Franchise Fund -- Raised a net $400 million from a global client, bringing total AUM close to $1 billion in this fund.
  • Revenue -- Declined 10% sequentially largely due to the absence of $29 million in December performance fees and two fewer days in the March quarter, but rose 9% year over year.
  • Weighted Average Fee Rate -- 67 basis points for the quarter, declined sequentially due to the absence of performance fees.
  • Adjusted Operating Expenses -- Increased 4% sequentially, mainly from Grand View Property Partners integration, seasonal expenses, and higher long-term compensation.
  • Adjusted Operating Income -- Down 30% sequentially, but up 6% year over year, with margin compression primarily attributed to Grand View.
  • Adjusted Net Income per Adjusted Share -- Fell 31% sequentially and rose 5% year over year, tracking operating income trends.
  • Dividend -- Quarterly dividend declared at 77¢ per share, representing a 24% decrease sequentially and a 13% increase year over year.
  • Cash Position -- $271 million on the balance sheet at quarter-end, with $50 million in seed capital redeemed, reducing seed investments to $110 million.
  • Intermediate Wealth Channel -- Achieved slight positive net flows and reported the second-best gross inflow quarter since 2021.
  • Performance Recognition -- Multiple Morningstar and Lipper awards for long-term outperformance, including 12 strategies outperforming since inception and average outperformance of 202 basis points annually net of fees.
  • Platform Expansion -- Added Grand View Property Partners as a real estate private equity team and filed to offer ETF share classes, broadening investment vehicles and distribution, particularly in EMEA.

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RISKS

  • Net outflows of $3.1 billion were concentrated in equity strategies driven by "clients de-risking, reallocating after periods of asset class outperformance, and some shifting to passive alternatives."
  • Management noted "the backdrop in equities is more challenging and difficult to predict," reflecting headwinds in the equity segment.
  • The sequential decline in both operating income and dividend payout was primarily due to the absence of performance fees and seasonally lower revenue.

SUMMARY

Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (APAM 2.91%) reported a sequential AUM decline and notable net outflows from equity strategies amid client de-risking and asset reallocations, while its credit and alternatives businesses maintained positive inflows and pipeline momentum. Performance metrics showed topline revenue declines versus the prior quarter, with margin compression attributed to mix shift and specific investments, though year-over-year trends remained positive. The company executed on strategic platform expansion through onboarding new talent, integrating Grand View Property Partners, and expanding distribution capabilities in intermediate wealth and EMEA, while preserving a robust balance sheet and cash reserves to support future growth.

  • CEO Gottlieb stated, "At the end of last week, our AUM was back up to nearly $184 billion, near the all-time high that we achieved in late February," signaling a market-driven partial AUM recovery after quarter-end.
  • CFO Daley indicated fixed expenses for 2026 are expected to increase only at a low single-digit rate, excluding $20 million in special costs related to compensation and Grand View.
  • Management cited ongoing diversification into custom credit solutions, model delivery, and exploring new opportunities including possible acquisitions and incremental R&D initiatives.
  • "intermediate wealth platform having a slight positive flow for the quarter is a good indication," according to CEO Gottlieb, highlighting early traction in new distribution channels.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

  • EMEA: Europe, Middle East, and Africa, used here to describe Artisan's expanded distribution efforts in that region.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Jason A. Gottlieb: Welcome to the Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. business update and earnings call. Thank you for joining the call today. At Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc., our purpose is to generate and compound wealth for our clients over the long term. We do so by maintaining an ideal home for investment talent, providing a unique combination of autonomy, degrees of freedom, resources, and support. Our model has proven repeatable over time as we have steadily expanded our capabilities across equities, credit, and alternatives. Across a wide range of market environments, we have maintained our focus on high value-added investing, driving positive outcomes for both our clients and our shareholders.

Long-term investment performance remains strong across our platform with 74% of our AUM outperforming their benchmarks over three years, 76% over five years, and 99% over ten years gross of fees. All 12 Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. strategies with track records over ten years have outperformed their benchmarks since inception net of fees. These 12 strategies have compounded capital at average annual rates between 6% to nearly 13%, and have exceeded their benchmarks by an average of 202 basis points annually net of fees. Highlighting our track record of positive long-term investment outcomes, two of our investment teams were recently recognized by Morningstar and Lipper for investment excellence.

Morningstar nominated the Global Value team’s Dan O’Keefe for the 2026 Morningstar Award for Investing Excellence, Outstanding Equity Portfolio Manager. Lipper named the team’s Global Value Fund Institutional Class the best fund in its Global Large Cap Value Funds category for the three-, five-, and ten-year periods ended 12/31/2025. Lipper also named Select Equity Fund Institutional Class the best fund in its Global Multicap Value Funds category for the trailing three-year period ended 12/31/2025. Lipper also named the M Sites Capital Group’s Global Unconstrained Fund Institutional Class as the best fund in its Global Income Funds category over the trailing three-year period ending 12/31/2025.

External recognition is not our goal, but the consistency with which Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. has earned accolades like these across time, teams, and asset classes validates the quality of our platform and repeatability of our business model for both talent and clients. Congratulations to the Global Value team and the M Sites Capital Group on these recent recognitions. Shorter term, trailing one-year performance has been weighed down by underperformance in a couple of our largest equity strategies, all of which have strong long-term track records. Turning to slide four, firmwide net outflows in the first quarter were $3.1 billion.

Outflows were concentrated in a few equity strategies where we saw clients de-risking, reallocating after periods of asset class outperformance, and some shifting to passive alternatives. Those outflows mask positive business developments across many parts of the platform. Year to date, we have net inflows in 13 of our investment strategies. The Sustainable Emerging Markets strategy raised $250 million in the first quarter and assets under management are nearing $3 billion. We have continued our multiyear success in growing our credit businesses, with $800 million of net inflows in the first quarter. This was our fifteenth consecutive quarter of positive credit flows.

In alternatives, we raised $300 million in the first quarter, primarily in the Global Unconstrained strategy, where we continue to build a realizable pipeline. We expect to see continued strong business development in credit and alternatives, while the backdrop in equities is more challenging and difficult to predict. Our teams have been operating efficiently during recent market volatility. At the end of last week, our AUM was back up to nearly $184 billion, near the all-time high that we achieved in late February. Our business and financial model allows us to remain focused on delivering high value-added investment outcomes for clients, servicing our existing clients, while actively developing new client opportunities across channels globally.

Slide five highlights our methodical approach to expanding our platform with new talent and investment capabilities. In the first quarter, we onboarded Grand View Property Partners, a real estate private equity investment firm specializing in U.S. middle market assets, and laid the groundwork to launch the team’s next flagship fund later this year. We also added key distribution talent in EMEA and the intermediate wealth channel and filed an exemptive relief application with the SEC to offer ETF share classes of Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. mutual funds.

These investments build on success we are seeing with additional distribution resources accessing the intermediate wealth channel in particular, and the broadening and modernizing of our investment vehicle capabilities with custom credit solutions and model delivery. The asset management landscape remains dynamic, and we are actively exploring opportunities to expand the breadth of our platform. We are looking at a full range of opportunities from individual lift outs to larger acquisitions. Our platform remains differentiated and compelling for great investment talent, and we have more ways to access, resource, and support talent than ever before. I will now turn it over to CJ to review our recent financial results.

Charles James Daley: Thanks, Jason. Our complete GAAP and adjusted results are detailed in our earnings release. We exited 2025 with record assets under management, a new all-time high in quarterly revenue, and our second-highest annual revenues and earnings. As of 03/31/2026, assets under management were $173 billion, down 4% from December and up 7% year over year. Average AUM was $182 billion, up 1% sequentially and up 9% compared to the prior-year quarter. While AUM declined sharply in March due to market conditions, it has largely recovered in April, as Jason mentioned. Revenues were [inaudible] down 10% from December and up 9% compared to the prior-year quarter.

The sequential decline was primarily due to the expected absence of performance fees, as December included $29 million of performance fees realized across six strategies, with the majority of our performance fee opportunities measured and realized annually in that period. In addition, approximately $6 million of the sequential decrease in revenue was due to two fewer days in the quarter. Our weighted average fee rate for the quarter was 67 basis points, down from December due to the absence of performance fees. Adjusted operating expenses increased 4% compared to December, primarily due to the addition of expenses of Grand View Property Partners, seasonal expenses, and the impact of long-term compensation expense. Our full-year 2026 expense guidance remains unchanged.

Excluding approximately $20 million of incremental fixed expenses related to long-term incentive compensation and Grand View, we continue to expect fixed expenses to increase at a low single-digit rate in 2026. Compared to the prior-year quarter, adjusted operating expenses increased 11%, driven primarily by higher variable incentive compensation associated with increased revenues. As a result, adjusted operating income decreased 30% sequentially and increased 6% year over year. The decline in margin compared to the prior-year quarter was primarily a result of the addition of Grand View results. Adjusted net income per adjusted share declined 31% from December and increased 5% compared to the prior-year quarter, consistent with operating income trends.

In our non-GAAP measures, nonoperating income includes only interest income and expense. While valuation changes in our seed investments impact shareholder economics, we exclude these changes from adjusted results for greater transparency into our core operating performance. Our balance sheet remains strong with $271 million in cash. During the first quarter, we redeemed approximately $50 million of seed capital, reducing seed investments on the balance sheet to $110 million. Proceeds from seed capital redemptions are included in cash available for corporate purposes, reinvestment, or potential return to shareholders through our year-end special dividend.

Consistent with our dividend policy, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of 77¢ per share for the March 2026 quarter, representing a 24% decrease from the prior quarter and a 13% increase year over year. The sequential decline reflects lower cash generation due primarily to the absence of performance fees and seasonal expense patterns in the first quarter. After funding the quarterly dividend, we retained approximately $150 million of excess capital to support organic growth initiatives, evaluate potential M&A opportunities, and return to shareholders. That concludes my prepared remarks. I will now turn the call back to the operator.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star and then one on your touch-tone phones. If you are using a speakerphone, we ask that you please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, you may press star and two. In the interest of time, we also ask that you please limit yourselves to two questions. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question today comes from William Raymond Katz from TD Cowen. Please go ahead with your question.

Analyst: Okay. Thank you very much for taking the questions. So first question, I guess in your prepared comments and also in the commentary yesterday with the release, you mentioned the equity attrition. Where do you think we stand in terms of that reallocation? And then within the $184 billion that you cited as of last week, can you frame what you are seeing in terms of that equity attrition? And maybe the broader question on the institutional pipeline at large is how has that been reshaped a bit between EM and credit versus what you are seeing on the equity side? Thank you.

Jason A. Gottlieb: Hey, Bill. I will talk about the equity business for a second. There were two primary drivers. The first was rebalancing across our international strategies given the strength in the EM market being up 30% and a still relatively strong U.S. market. We experienced it across a number of teams and within our International Value franchise in particular, given the size and nature of their business. As you know, David and the International Value team have been soft closed for quite a long time, but he has always been able to manage capacity and the flow dynamics to a neutral to slight forward lean. We would expect that to remain in place.

Everything we have seen in that business has been very much rebalance-oriented; there has not been any termination activity. The other piece is coming from our Growth business, which is another large component of our AUM. There are a lot of underlying dynamics occurring. Our Global Opportunities strategy remains a bit challenged on shorter- and intermediate-term performance, causing some headwinds with some of our institutional relationships globally. But there are important positive developments. The Franchise Fund we launched about a year or so ago raised net $400 million in the quarter from a global client, getting us close to $1 billion in AUM there.

The Mid Cap Growth strategy, another large strategy on that team, has seen a meaningful performance turnaround that began in late 2024, accelerated into 2025, and we are continuing to see it in 2026, which we think will continue to help bolster that franchise. And Global Discovery, another meaningful opportunity within that franchise, is also seeing really good pipeline activity given its stable and good long-term performance. So from an equity perspective, the dynamics have been primarily institutionally focused given the rebalance and the challenges coming from Global Opportunities. In Emerging Markets, we are seeing really good opportunities. This was an asset class that was left for dead until 2025.

We have seen strong performance from the asset class and, importantly, from our teams. Sustainable Emerging Markets in particular—the $250 million flow we saw for the quarter—is the beginning of what should be a good path to crystallize the great performance the team has put up over the last several quarters. We believe that will be a good opportunity for us as we look ahead as it relates to the pipeline.

Analyst: Thanks for that. And as a follow-up on the pipeline for team lift outs and acquisitions—appreciate you are working on Grand View right now—how does that look today versus a year ago or even last quarter in terms of the nature of the pipeline, where it is seasoned, and where you are leaning in terms of incremental opportunity? Thank you.

Jason A. Gottlieb: As I have mentioned in previous calls, our Investment Strategy Group and broader management team are operating extremely efficiently, not only with the existing platform and franchises, but also with the external opportunity set. There are two areas in particular where we are focused: expanding our credit business and expanding our alternatives platform. We are seeing really good opportunities to expand more traditional credit globally—so much so that there is a strong possibility we could get something done by the end of the year.

We are excited about that, though you never say it is done until it is done—strange behavior always seems to happen near the end—but we feel very good about where we are and think this will be a big opportunity for our platform. On the M&A landscape, we are seeing a robust pipeline across the areas we have talked about: differentiated credit, secondaries in both private equity and real assets. Private credit, not surprisingly, is becoming incrementally more interesting.

It is an area we have shied away from given the lack of a clear cycle; it is hard to tell whether what we are seeing is truly a cycle or just idiosyncratic situations, but we are very focused on having good conversations there. Relative to the past, the pipeline has incrementally strengthened, and we feel very good about the forward lean with the opportunity to globalize credit. We are also constantly evaluating and doing R&D with our existing business, and there are two incremental opportunities we are working through. If they come to fruition, they could be meaningful and interesting, but they are still in the R&D phase, so it is a little early to discuss those.

Operator: Thank you very much. To enter the question queue, please press star and one. To remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Our next question comes from John Joseph Dunn from Evercore ISI. Please go ahead with your question.

Analyst: I was wondering if there are any institutional client segments that historically you had not done much with that you are targeting now that you have a bunch of newer strategy areas?

Jason A. Gottlieb: I do not think, institutionally, there is any new client segment that has not been tapped or that we do not have a good handle on. The majority of where we are seeing opportunity is in the intermediate wealth space. We have built out the platform in terms of people and capabilities in the U.S., and more recently, we have recruited, hired, and onboarded in the U.K., the European market, and more broadly in EMEA. That is yielding interesting results even over the short term. The intermediate wealth platform having a slight positive flow for the quarter is a good indication.

Breaking the flow pattern between gross in and gross out, it was our second-best gross inflow quarter dating back to 2021 when there was a lot of equity activity. We feel good that there is a correlation between the quality and talent we have brought on and the inflow outcomes. We obviously have to work through a few equity strategies we talked about from a rebalancing and performance perspective, but what we are seeing from an intermediate wealth perspective feels very good. Institutionally, we just have to continue to block and tackle with some of our larger relationships.

Analyst: Got it. And then on that, is there anything you can point to in terms of line of sight to any larger mandates that might be looking to exit, and maybe a quick wraparound on the regional factors impacting institutional demand?

Jason A. Gottlieb: I do not have a strong perspective on line of sight there. We are heavily engaged with all of our institutional relationships. The teams that sit alongside our investment franchises and service our clients are well equipped to provide us with intel, and we do not see any direct line of sight to massive outflows or massive inflows. It has been a steady state of staying close to clients—certainly when performance is more challenging—and continuing to build on those relationships, recognizing we have work to do. Where we have a strong forward lean in performance, we are leaning in, and we are seeing some green shoots.

It could be a bit of an exchange of kicks where we have some attrition in areas with weaker performance, but we also have great capabilities. I mentioned Global Value. I am sure you have seen performance from Mark Yockey’s group and the Global Equity team, both International and Global. Our Sustainable Emerging Markets franchise is getting a lot of looks institutionally as well. We feel good about the positioning, recognizing that inevitably you will always have a strategy or two facing some challenges, and we are maintaining our discipline around those strategies.

Operator: And with that, we will be concluding today’s question and answer session as well as today’s conference call. We thank everyone for attending. Have a pleasant day. You may now disconnect your lines.