Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) Position Increased by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) by 0.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 8,277,879 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 33,700 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned approximately 2.64% of Ares Management worth $1,465,433,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Ares Management by 67.0% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 162 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Noble Wealth Management PBC bought a new position in Ares Management during the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Ares Management by 53.4% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 227 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Management in the third quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Avalon Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Ares Management during the 4th quarter worth about $53,000. 50.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Ashish Bhutani acquired 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $141.33 per share, with a total value of $1,413,300.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 22,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,237,163.65. This represents a 77.49 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 110,845 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.17, for a total transaction of $16,978,128.65. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,400,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $214,438,000. The trade was a 7.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 329,113 shares of company stock worth $54,409,915. Company insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ARES. Wells Fargo & Company cut 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. StockNews.com cut shares of Ares Management from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Ares Management from $224.00 to $217.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Ares Management from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $166.00 to $202.00 in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Ares Management 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, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $173.83.

Ares Management Stock Performance

ARES opened at $148.66 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $173.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $170.21. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a market cap of $46.89 billion, a PE ratio of 73.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.23. Ares Management Co. has a 1 year low of $125.23 and a 1 year high of $200.49.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 Co. will post 5.28 EPS for the current year.

Ares Management Increases Dividend

The business 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. This represents a $4.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.01%. This is an increase from Ares Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. Ares Management’s payout ratio is presently 183.25%.

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.