Artisan Partners downgraded to Sell at Goldman on performance challenges

Goldman Sachs analyst Alexander Blostein downgraded Artisan Partners to Sell from Neutral with a price target of $27, down from $33. Goldman believes recent underperformance of a number of Artisan’s largest strategies, coupled with the roll-off of significant alpha in those strategies from 2019 and 2020, puts the firm’s medium-term excess performance at risk, potentially resulting in further deterioration in the company’s organic growth. While "encouraged" by numerous growth initiatives, including Credit and Alternatives, the strategies with "meaningful performance challenges," such as Growth and Global Equity, are "much larger in size," the analyst tells investors.