Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. (AMG): BCG Matrix [Dec-2025 Updated]

You're looking at Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. (AMG)'s current playbook, and honestly, it's a clear pivot to alternatives that's driving the action. We've mapped their business units onto the BCG Matrix to see where the growth is versus where the stability lies; right now, Alternative Strategies are the clear Stars, fueling 50% of LTM EBITDA as of Q2 2025, while the massive Long-Only base acts as the reliable Cash Cow supporting $350 million in share repurchases year-to-date. But what about those new partnerships and the legacy products facing outflows? Dive below to see which segments are the high-potential Question Marks and which Dogs need trimming.

Background of Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. (AMG)

You're looking at Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. (AMG) as of late 2025, and the story is clearly about a strategic pivot toward higher-growth, less cyclical areas of asset management. Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. (AMG) functions as a strategic partner, acquiring stakes in boutique investment management firms while letting them keep their operational independence and entrepreneurial culture. This partnership approach is central to how the firm magnifies its Affiliates' advantages.

As of the third quarter of 2025, Affiliated Managers Group's aggregate assets under management (AUM) stood at approximately $804 billion, showing 10.3% year-on-year growth from the same quarter last year. This AUM base is spread across private markets, liquid alternative, and differentiated long-only investment strategies. The firm has about 40 independent Affiliates offering these diverse products.

The focus on alternatives is definitely driving the current earnings mix. For the trailing twelve months (LTM) ending September 30, 2025, the breakdown of LTM EBITDA contribution shows that Differentiated Long-Only accounted for 48%, Liquid Alternatives was 41%, and Private Markets was 7%. This means that 52% of the firm's EBITDA is now coming from the higher-growth areas of Alternatives and Private Markets combined.

In terms of recent operational results, the third quarter of 2025 saw strong client demand, evidenced by net client cash inflows of approximately $9 billion for the quarter, bringing the year-to-date total to about $17 billion. This momentum in alternatives helped push the Economic Earnings per share for Q3 to $6.10, which was a 27% jump compared to the prior-year quarter. However, the reported revenue for Q3 2025 was $528 million, which slightly missed analyst expectations.

Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. (AMG) has been active on the partnership front to accelerate this shift. In 2025, they announced four new partnerships with firms managing alternative strategies, including Verition Fund Management and Qualitas Energy. A major strategic move was the recent collaboration with Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) and an investment in its subsidiary, BBH Credit Partners, aimed at developing new products for the U.S. wealth marketplace. To fund growth and return capital, the firm repurchased approximately $350 million in common stock year-to-date as of early November 2025.

The total annual revenue for the trailing twelve months ended September 30, 2025, was $2.04 billion. For the full fiscal year 2025, analysts expected revenues to reach about $2.08 billion. The firm's disciplined capital allocation strategy is aimed at achieving a mid-teens annualized long-term earnings growth opportunity.

Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. (AMG) - BCG Matrix: Stars

You're looking at the segments of Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. (AMG) that are leading their respective markets and operating in high-growth areas, which is exactly what the Stars quadrant represents. These areas consume cash to maintain growth but promise future Cash Cow status.

The core of AMG's current growth engine is clearly centered on its alternative asset management businesses. As of the trailing twelve months ending June 30, 2025 (LTM as of Q2 2025), the Alternatives strategy segment was responsible for approximately 50% of the firm's LTM Adjusted EBITDA contribution. This figure shows the strategic shift toward higher-fee, longer-duration assets. The breakdown of the overall EBITDA contribution by strategy as of June 30, 2025, looks like this:

The momentum in these high-growth areas is evident in the firm's net cash flow figures. For the nine months ended September 30, 2025 (Year-to-Date), AMG recorded firmwide net client cash inflows of approximately $17 billion. This total was heavily driven by the alternative strategies.

Within alternatives, two key areas stand out as Stars based on the provided data points:

• Liquid Alternatives: Record net inflows of $10 billion in Q1 2025, fueled by tax-aware solutions.
• Private Markets Affiliates (e.g., Pantheon): AUM surging to $150 billion in Q2 2025.

The Liquid Alternatives space saw its strongest quarterly flows in AMG's history during the first quarter of 2025. By the third quarter of 2025, the liquid alternatives segment had generated $14 billion in net inflows for that single quarter, bringing the year-to-date total to $17 billion in firm-wide net inflows.

AQR Capital Management is a major player driving this success. Momentum at AQR Capital Management, particularly in liquid alternatives, is a key component of the overall flow picture. For the first half of 2025, AQR alone generated more than $20 billion of positive net flows into liquid alternatives year-to-date. This significant contribution helps power the firm-wide $17 billion year-to-date net inflows reported through Q3 2025.

Here are some key metrics associated with these growth areas as of mid-2025:

• Private Markets AUM growth since 2022: 50%.
• Total Alternative AUM added in the first half of 2025: approximately $55 billion.
• Total Alternative AUM as of September 30, 2025: approximately $804 billion (Aggregate AUM).
• AQR's long/short tax-aware AUM as of June 2025: north of $30 billion.

If this success in high-growth markets is sustained as the markets mature, these segments are positioned to transition into Cash Cows for Affiliated Managers Group, Inc.

Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. (AMG) - BCG Matrix: Cash Cows

Cash Cows at Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. (AMG) represent the established business units, primarily within their differentiated long-only strategies, that command a high market share in mature asset classes. These units generate substantial, reliable cash flow that supports the entire organization's operations and capital return initiatives.

Differentiated Long-Only Strategies: These segments are characterized by a large, stable Assets Under Management (AUM) base, which translates directly into predictable, recurring fee-related earnings. As of the second quarter of 2025, the AUM base for these differentiated long-only strategies stood at approximately $440 billion. This scale provides the necessary foundation for consistent fee generation, even as the broader active equity market faces secular pressures.

The relative size of the long-only segment compared to the growth-oriented alternatives is key to understanding the Cash Cow dynamic:

Established Global Equity Affiliates: These mature businesses are the source of the consistent management fees that define a Cash Cow. While they face industry-wide fee compression, their established client relationships and market presence ensure a steady revenue stream. To be fair, the pressure is evident, as Affiliated Managers Group saw approximately $9 billion in net outflows from active equities during the third quarter of 2025. This outflow rate highlights the mature, lower-growth nature of this part of the portfolio, requiring minimal promotional investment to maintain share.

Core Fee-Related Earnings: The bedrock of the business is the reliable cash flow generated by these high-market-share units. This cash generation is critical for capital deployment decisions. For instance, this core engine supported the $350 million in share repurchases Affiliated Managers Group executed year-to-date in 2025. The third quarter alone saw $77 million used for repurchases. Fee-related earnings (excluding net performance fees) in the third quarter grew 15% year-over-year, demonstrating their strength as a consistent earner.

Legacy Long-Only Products: These products maintain a high market share in traditional asset classes, but their organic growth potential is limited, fitting the low-growth criterion of a Cash Cow. The outflows noted in the broader active equities segment reflect the headwinds these legacy products face. The company reported:

• Net client cash outflows of approximately $9 billion in active equities during the third quarter of 2025.
• Approximately $14 billion in net outflows from long-only equities during the first quarter of 2025.

Still, the stability of the fee base allows management to focus investments elsewhere, such as supporting infrastructure to improve efficiency, which is a classic Cash Cow strategy. The company's overall liquidity position remains strong, with net client cash inflows year-to-date 2025 reaching $17 billion, a significant portion of which is underpinned by the stability of these core businesses.

Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. (AMG) - BCG Matrix: Dogs

You're looking at the parts of Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. (AMG) that are stuck in low-growth markets and have a small slice of that market. Honestly, these units are the definition of a cash trap-they don't consume much cash, but they sure aren't generating much either. Dogs are units or products with a low market share and low growth rates. These business units are prime candidates for divestiture, because expensive turn-around plans usually don't help much.

To understand the pressure on these segments, look at the broader Q1 2025 results. The shift away from traditional products is stark when you see the top-line numbers.

Certain Traditional Long-Only Equity Products are the clearest example of this quadrant for AMG right now. These strategies experienced approximately $14 billion in net outflows in the first quarter of 2025 alone, a direct result of market headwinds and near-term performance challenges. While AMG generated a record $14 billion in net client cash inflows into alternative strategies, which offset these outflows, the sheer volume of redemptions from the long-only book signals low market share momentum in that specific area. It's a segment where client demand is clearly moving elsewhere.

Affiliates in Highly Competitive/Commoditized Segments often fall into the Dog category. These are the areas, typically in crowded, low-fee markets, where AMG's affiliates struggle to achieve meaningful organic growth or gain market share against larger, more scaled competitors. The pressure on aggregate fees, which dropped -13.7% to $1.27 billion in Q1 2025, suggests that fee compression in these commoditized areas is persistent, even if AUM is slightly up due to market appreciation or alternative inflows.

You see the impact in the performance metrics for strategies with Persistent Underperformance. Products that struggle to consistently generate alpha (excess returns over a benchmark) lead directly to client redemptions, which you see reflected in those large long-only outflows. This redemption pressure, coupled with the need to maintain competitive fee structures in those segments, results in margin pressure across the board. The overall Net Profit Margin fell to 21.8% for the period, down from 31.5% the previous year, and these underperforming units drag down the overall profitability profile.

Finally, consider Businesses with Declining AUM. While AMG's aggregate AUM grew to $712 billion as of March 31, 2025, and then to $803.6 billion by September 30, 2025, this growth is being driven by the alternative strategies. Any segment where the asset base shrinkage from outflows is outpacing market appreciation or inflows from other strategies is firmly in the Dog quadrant. These are the segments where capital is not being reinvested or retained effectively.

The key characteristics defining these Dog units within AMG's portfolio include:

• Net outflows of approximately $14 billion in Q1 2025 from traditional equity strategies.
• Fee-related earnings growth of only +4% year-over-year in Q1 2025, partially offset by these outflows.
• Struggles in crowded, low-fee markets leading to low organic growth.
• Segments contributing to the year-over-year decline in Net Income to common shareholders, which fell 52% in Q1 2025 compared to Q1 2024.
• Units that do not align with the strategic shift toward alternatives, which now represent about 50% of EBITDA contribution as of March 31, 2025.

If onboarding takes 14+ days, churn risk rises. Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. (AMG) - BCG Matrix: Question Marks

You're looking at the areas within Affiliated Managers Group (AMG) that are currently demanding cash to fuel growth but haven't yet delivered their full potential return-the classic Question Marks. These are the nascent, high-potential strategies where AMG is actively deploying capital to secure future market share in secular growth areas.

New Affiliate Partnerships

AMG has been aggressive in seeding new growth engines. So far in 2025, the firm announced four new partnerships, including Verition Fund Management and Qualitas Energy, among others, with these firms collectively managing approximately $24 billion in alternative strategies as of mid-2025. Considering AMG's aggregate assets under management (AUM) stood at approximately $771 billion as of June 30, 2025, these new ventures represent a small initial slice of the total pie, fitting the low market share characteristic of a Question Mark, despite being in high-growth segments like multi-strategy alternatives.

The minority stake in Verition Fund Management, which closed in the second quarter of 2025, immediately added $12.6 billion in AUM. This move is a clear investment to gain footing in the multi-strategy space, which requires significant ongoing marketing and distribution support to scale its market penetration.

The year-to-date commitments to these new partnerships totaled approximately $700 million, showing the cash burn required to gain this initial foothold.

Strategic Collaboration with BBH Credit Partners

The strategic collaboration with Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) to form BBH Credit Partners is a textbook example of investing in a high-growth area-structured and alternative credit for the U.S. wealth market. AMG is providing seed capital for a set of new products and making a minority investment in the subsidiary. This is a cash-consuming step now, with the investment expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2026.

This venture leverages BBH's existing $55 billion taxable fixed income franchise, but the new product suite aimed at the wealth market is the Question Mark, needing rapid adoption to justify the investment. You need to watch the flows into these new credit solutions closely over the next 18 months.

Energy Transition Infrastructure

The focus on energy transition infrastructure via affiliates like Qualitas Energy places AMG squarely in a high-growth market. These new private markets partnerships announced in 2025 are expected to collectively add approximately $18 billion in AUM. This figure represents the potential upside, but as newer vintages, these funds require significant capital calls and time to mature, meaning low current returns relative to the investment.

Here's the quick math: Private Markets AUM was about $150 billion as of June 30, 2025. Adding $18 billion from these specific new initiatives is a significant growth driver, but the initial market share within the broader infrastructure segment is still being established.

Early-Stage Private Markets Funds

Newer vintage private markets funds across AMG's affiliates are Question Marks because they are in the capital-raising and initial deployment phase. They are targeting high future returns, which is why AMG continues to invest, but they consume significant capital now, both directly through GP commitments and indirectly through support for the affiliate's scaling efforts.

AMG's overall plan for 2025 included anticipating net purchases of approximately $175 million of Affiliate equity, much of which targets these growth areas. These newer funds require patient capital and time to scale their assets and generate meaningful performance fees, which is why they are cash-negative in the short term.

The current state of these Question Marks can be summarized by their strategic role:

• Investment Focus: Deploying growth capital into new and existing affiliates.
• Cash Flow Impact: Consuming capital; AMG repurchased approximately $273 million in common stock in the first half of 2025, balancing this with growth investments.
• Growth Trajectory: Aiming to transition from low market share to Stars status in secular growth areas.
• Risk: Needs rapid market adoption or they risk becoming Dogs if growth stalls.