Apollo Global Management Inc. $APO Shares Sold by Panagora Asset Management Inc.

Panagora Asset Management Inc. cut its stake in Apollo Global Management Inc. (NYSE:APO) by 97.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,975 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 462,705 shares during the quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Apollo Global Management were worth $1,841,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Boston Partners purchased a new position in shares of Apollo Global Management during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $370,543,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Apollo Global Management during the first quarter worth $342,335,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Apollo Global Management by 2.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 46,028,812 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,303,186,000 after buying an additional 893,428 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in Apollo Global Management by 24.6% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,581,732 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $490,482,000 after buying an additional 706,181 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in Apollo Global Management by 33.0% in the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,473,614 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $338,737,000 after buying an additional 613,124 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Martin Kelly sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.41, for a total value of $788,460.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 325,604 shares in the company, valued at $42,787,621.64. This represents a 1.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 8.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

APO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Apollo Global Management from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $151.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Apollo Global Management in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Apollo Global Management from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. BMO Capital Markets set a $136.00 target price on Apollo Global Management and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Apollo Global Management from $162.00 to $173.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $162.85.

Apollo Global Management Stock Performance

NYSE APO opened at $136.68 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.49 and a quick ratio of 1.49. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $128.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $135.51. The company has a market cap of $79.33 billion, a PE ratio of 19.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.61. Apollo Global Management Inc. has a 1-year low of $102.58 and a 1-year high of $189.49.

Apollo Global Management Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 17th were paid a dividend of $0.51 per share. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 17th. Apollo Global Management’s payout ratio is 29.82%.

Apollo Global Management Profile

Apollo Global Management, Inc is a private equity firm specializing in investments in credit, private equity, infrastructure, secondaries and real estate markets. The firm prefers to invest in private and public markets. The firm’s private equity investments include traditional buyouts, recapitalization, distressed buyouts and debt investments in real estate, corporate partner buyouts, distressed asset, corporate carve-outs, middle market, growth, venture capital, turnaround, bridge, corporate restructuring, special situation, acquisition, and industry consolidation transactions.