CoreFirst Bank & Trust Makes New $724,000 Investment in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES)

CoreFirst Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 4,090 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $724,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in Ares Management by 67.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 162 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. Noble Wealth Management PBC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Management in the fourth quarter worth approximately $36,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Ares Management by 53.4% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 227 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the period. Point72 DIFC Ltd acquired a new position in Ares Management during the third quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, Avalon Trust Co purchased a new position in Ares Management during the fourth quarter worth approximately $53,000. 50.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ares Management

In related news, insider R. Kipp Deveer sold 78,933 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.02, for a total value of $14,998,848.66. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,150,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $218,523,000. The trade was a 6.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Ashish Bhutani bought 10,000 shares of Ares Management stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $141.33 per share, for a total transaction of $1,413,300.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 22,905 shares in the company, valued at $3,237,163.65. The trade was a 77.49 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 218,268 shares of company stock valued at $37,431,786 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Ares Management in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Ares Management from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $166.00 to $202.00 in a research report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com downgraded Ares Management from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Ares Management from $215.00 to $187.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Ares Management from $224.00 to $217.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $173.83.

Ares Management Trading Up 4.1 %

NYSE ARES opened at $153.81 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $174.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $170.35. The stock has a market cap of $48.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 75.77, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.23. Ares Management Co. has a 52 week low of $125.23 and a 52 week high of $200.49. 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) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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%. Equities research analysts predict that Ares Management Co. will post 5.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Management Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be issued a dividend of $1.12 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 17th. This is an increase from Ares Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.91%. Ares Management’s payout ratio is currently 183.25%.

Ares Management 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.