Western Financial Corp CA Invests $596,000 in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES)

Western Financial Corp CA purchased a new stake in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 3,368 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $596,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ARES. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Ares Management by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,244,179 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,284,773,000 after purchasing an additional 679,462 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Ares Management by 1.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,301,709 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $982,058,000 after buying an additional 63,851 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Ares Management by 5.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,826,479 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $596,318,000 after buying an additional 187,184 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in shares of Ares Management by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,678,177 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $600,830,000 after buying an additional 18,773 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Ares Management by 6.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,950,451 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $459,580,000 after acquiring an additional 175,627 shares during the last quarter. 50.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ares Management Trading Up 0.1 %

Ares Management stock opened at $198.19 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $62.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 91.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.18. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $181.57 and a 200-day moving average of $163.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05. Ares Management Co. has a one year low of $119.76 and a one year high of $199.94.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 1st. The asset manager reported $0.95 EPS 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $833.58 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.83 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Ares Management Co. will post 4.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on ARES shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $212.00 to $207.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. StockNews.com lowered Ares Management from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Ares Management from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $166.00 to $202.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Ares Management from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $176.08.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Ryan Berry sold 18,329 shares of Ares Management stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.18, for a total transaction of $3,210,874.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 254,885 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,650,754.30. The trade was a 6.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider R. Kipp Deveer sold 115,838 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.83, for a total value of $20,599,471.54. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,259,162 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $223,916,778.46. This represents a 8.42 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 574,167 shares of company stock valued at $99,996,647. 1.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.