Financial Contrast: Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM) & Pacific Ventures Group (OTCMKTS:PACV)

Pacific Ventures Group (OTCMKTS:PACV) and Artisan Partners Asset Management (NYSE:APAM) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, risk, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Pacific Ventures Group and Artisan Partners Asset Management, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pacific Ventures Group	0	0	0	0	0.00
Artisan Partners Asset Management	0	4	2	1	2.57

Artisan Partners Asset Management has a consensus target price of $44.25, indicating a potential upside of 6.74%. Given Artisan Partners Asset Management’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Artisan Partners Asset Management is more favorable than Pacific Ventures Group.

Profitability

This table compares Pacific Ventures Group and Artisan Partners Asset Management’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pacific Ventures Group	N/A	N/A	N/A
Artisan Partners Asset Management	22.90%	72.15%	20.11%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

86.5% of Artisan Partners Asset Management shares are held by institutional investors. 26.7% of Pacific Ventures Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 12.5% of Artisan Partners Asset Management shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Pacific Ventures Group and Artisan Partners Asset Management”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pacific Ventures Group	$39.91 million	0.00	-$7.73 million	N/A	N/A
Artisan Partners Asset Management	$1.11 billion	3.01	$259.75 million	$3.66	11.33

Artisan Partners Asset Management has higher revenue and earnings than Pacific Ventures Group.

Risk & Volatility

Pacific Ventures Group has a beta of 0.99, indicating that its share price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Artisan Partners Asset Management has a beta of 1.74, indicating that its share price is 74% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Artisan Partners Asset Management beats Pacific Ventures Group on 11 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Pacific Ventures Group

Pacific Ventures Group, Inc., through its subsidiaries, produces, sells, and distributes alcohol-infused ice creams and ice-pops. It sells its alcohol-infused ice-pops and ice creams under the SnöBar brand name. The company is also involved in the sale and lease of freezers, as well as the provision of marketing services; and supply of fresh and specialty produce, meat, and food products to redistributors, hotels, restaurants, schools, and nursing homes. In addition, it manufactures and wholesales custom processed beef, pork, chicken, lamb, veal, and seafood products; and supplies fruits, vegetables, and specialty groceries to retail customers and wholesale restaurants. Pacific Ventures Group, Inc. is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

About Artisan Partners Asset Management

Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. is publicly owned investment manager. It provides its services to pension and profit sharing plans, trusts, endowments, foundations, charitable organizations, government entities, private funds and non-U.S. funds, as well as mutual funds, non-U.S. funds and collective trusts. It manages separate client-focused equity and fixed income portfolios. The firm invests in the public equity and fixed income markets across the globe. It invests in growth and value stocks of companies across all market capitalization. For fixed income component of its portfolio the firm invests in non-investment grade corporate bonds and secured and unsecured loans. It employs fundamental analysis to create its portfolios. Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. was founded in 1994 and is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with additional offices in Atlanta, Georgia; New York City; San Francisco, California; Leawood, Kansas; and London, United Kingdom.