Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) Reaches New 12-Month High Following Analyst Upgrade

Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on the stock from $141.00 to $143.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Ares Management traded as high as $154.27 and last traded at $153.11, with a volume of 28702 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $149.58.

ARES has been the subject of several other research reports. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Ares Management from $131.00 to $127.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ares Management in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Ares Management from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $176.00 to $132.00 in a report on Thursday, June 13th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $150.00 price objective on shares of Ares Management in a report on Wednesday, May 22nd. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $160.00 to $158.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ares Management has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $134.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 157,837 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.22, for a total transaction of $23,394,600.14. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 92,163 shares in the company, valued at $13,660,399.86. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 157,837 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.22, for a total transaction of $23,394,600.14. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 92,163 shares in the company, valued at $13,660,399.86. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider David B. Kaplan sold 14,659 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.11, for a total transaction of $2,024,554.49. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 125,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,263,750. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 702,930 shares of company stock worth $97,948,044. Corporate insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ares Management

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Ares Management by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,599,345 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,207,381,000 after purchasing an additional 206,996 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in Ares Management by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,872,559 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $460,525,000 after purchasing an additional 71,819 shares during the period. LRI Investments LLC boosted its stake in Ares Management by 49.4% in the 2nd quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 2,822,565 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $376,191,000 after purchasing an additional 933,664 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Ares Management by 38.5% in the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,171,188 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $289,376,000 after purchasing an additional 603,676 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Management during the 4th quarter valued at $205,499,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 50.03% of the company’s stock.

Ares Management Stock Up 2.3 %

The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $139.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $134.88. The company has a market cap of $47.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The asset manager reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $707.36 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $814.88 million. Ares Management had a net margin of 12.86% and a return on equity of 21.22%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.71 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Ares Management Co. will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Management Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th were paid a dividend of $0.93 per share. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. Ares Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 166.82%.

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.