13,066 Shares in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) Acquired by Virtu Financial LLC

Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES - Free Report) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 13,066 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $2,036,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Ares Management by 6.5% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 65,417 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $10,195,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Ares Management by 24.6% in the 2nd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 192,634 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $25,674,000 after acquiring an additional 38,047 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ares Management by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 682,985 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $106,436,000 after acquiring an additional 36,476 shares during the period. GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new position in shares of Ares Management during the third quarter valued at approximately $900,000. Finally, BNP Paribas raised its holdings in Ares Management by 13.0% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas now owns 40,342 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $6,319,000 after purchasing an additional 4,643 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 50.03% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ares Management

In other Ares Management news, insider Ryan Berry sold 12,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.40, for a total value of $1,930,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 376,702 shares of the company's stock, valued at $58,162,788.80. This represents a 3.21 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 15,825 shares of Ares Management stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.24, for a total value of $2,646,573.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 214,079 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $35,802,571.96. This represents a 6.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 659,167 shares of company stock worth $113,702,897. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ARES. Wells Fargo & Company raised Ares Management from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their price target for the company from $176.00 to $212.00 in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group raised their target price on Ares Management from $158.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Ares Management from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Ares Management from $155.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Ares Management from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $169.64.

Ares Management Stock Down 0.2 %

NYSE:ARES traded down $0.35 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $182.39. 990,651 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,159,253. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $169.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $152.38. The firm has a market cap of $57.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 85.04, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.19. Ares Management Co. has a fifty-two week low of $112.83 and a fifty-two week high of $185.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 1st. The asset manager reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.01. Ares Management had a return on equity of 19.89% and a net margin of 12.51%. The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $833.58 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.83 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ares Management Co. will post 4.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Management Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be given a dividend of $0.93 per share. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.04%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 17th. Ares Management's payout ratio is presently 171.43%.

About Ares Management

Ares Management Corporation operates as an alternative asset manager in the United States, Europe, and Asia. The company's Tradable Credit Group segment manages various types of investment funds, such as commingled and separately managed accounts for institutional investors, and publicly traded vehicles and sub-advised funds for retail investors in the tradable and non-investment grade corporate credit markets.