Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) Receives Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES - Get Free Report) has been given an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the fifteen research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eleven have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $165.40.

ARES has been the topic of a number of research reports. JMP Securities raised shares of Ares Management from a "market perform" rating to a "market outperform" rating and set a $165.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Ares Management from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $159.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Ares Management from $216.00 to $161.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Ares Management from $188.00 to $166.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on Ares Management from $217.00 to $142.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th.

Insider Transactions at Ares Management

In related news, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 110,845 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.17, for a total value of $16,978,128.65. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,400,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $214,438,000. This trade represents a 7.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Ashish Bhutani acquired 10,000 shares of Ares Management stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was bought at an average price of $141.33 per share, with a total value of $1,413,300.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 22,905 shares in the company, valued at $3,237,163.65. This represents a 77.49 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold 329,113 shares of company stock worth $54,409,915 over the last quarter. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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Institutional Trading of Ares Management

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Ares Management by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,807,718 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $3,329,530,000 after acquiring an additional 907,757 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of Ares Management by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 10,753,779 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $1,903,741,000 after buying an additional 223,919 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Ares Management by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,277,879 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $1,465,433,000 after buying an additional 33,700 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in Ares Management by 12.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,109,070 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $1,258,519,000 after acquiring an additional 807,361 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of Ares Management by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,126,442 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $907,534,000 after acquiring an additional 66,671 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 50.03% of the company's stock.

Ares Management Stock Performance

NYSE ARES traded down $2.07 during trading on Friday, reaching $139.25. 64,545 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,808,412. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $155.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $168.74. Ares Management has a fifty-two week low of $110.63 and a fifty-two week high of $200.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 68.68, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.32.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.35 by ($0.12). Ares Management had a net margin of 11.35% and a return on equity of 16.64%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ares Management will post 5.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Management Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 17th were given a dividend of $1.12 per share. This represents a $4.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.22%. This is an increase from Ares Management's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 17th. Ares Management's dividend payout ratio is 183.25%.

Ares Management Company Profile

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.