Artisan Partners (AP0) Q3 2026 Earnings Report

The call had a positive overall tone. Management highlighted strong long-term investment performance, continued credit and alternatives inflows, product and geographic expansion, year-to-date financial growth, a strong balance sheet and multiple growth initiatives. These positives outweighed the significant but largely identified challenges from equity underperformance, $10.6 billion of quarterly net outflows, lower ending AUM, higher year-over-year expenses and expected near-term distribution-related AUM reduction.

For the fourth quarter, management anticipates launching an ETF share class of the Artisan Select Equity Fund and Artisan Focus Fund, staging these anticipated launches over the next several quarters, with a few more in Q1 and several more throughout the course of 2027; it is developing an interval fund structure for wealth clients in 2027. Annual income and capital gains mutual fund distributions are currently estimated to reduce AUM by $2.5 billion for distributions that will not be reinvested, approximately 3% of AUM is subject to performance fees, and management is projecting a similar contribution to last year’s approximately $29 million of performance fees, subject to market and performance conditions through the end of the year, with 7 of 8 performance fee accounts in the money. The recurring management fee rate is expected to be somewhere around 70 basis points, up probably a little over 1 basis point than where we were trending, and relatively stable. Fixed-cost guidance remains mid single digits, excluding the addition of the cost from Grand View and the exchange of kicks with the LTI grant.