Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $172.33.

ARES has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Ares Management from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Ares Management from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Ares Management from $155.00 to $174.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Ares Management from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ryan Berry sold 14,357 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.16, for a total value of $2,586,557.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 233,214 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,015,834.24. This represents a 5.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider R. Kipp Deveer sold 115,838 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.83, for a total value of $20,599,471.54. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,259,162 shares in the company, valued at approximately $223,916,778.46. The trade was a 8.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 614,167 shares of company stock worth $106,716,247. 1.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of ARES. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Ares Management by 9.0% during the third 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 increased its holdings in shares of Ares Management by 1.0% during the 3rd 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. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of Ares Management by 58.5% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,058,394 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $674,183,000 after buying an additional 1,867,933 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Ares Management by 5.1% in the 3rd 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 period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Ares Management by 0.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,678,177 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $600,830,000 after acquiring an additional 18,773 shares during the last quarter. 50.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ares Management Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of Ares Management stock opened at $181.11 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a market cap of $56.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 83.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.18. Ares Management has a 52-week low of $112.83 and a 52-week high of $185.06. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $174.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $157.05.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last issued its earnings results on Friday, November 1st. The asset manager reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $833.58 million. Ares Management had a return on equity of 19.89% and a net margin of 12.51%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.83 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ares Management will post 4.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Management Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were given a $0.93 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.05%. Ares Management’s dividend payout ratio is currently 171.43%.

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.