Renasant Bank Acquires 1,171 Shares of Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES)

Renasant Bank boosted its stake in shares of Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) by 37.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,313 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,171 shares during the period. Renasant Bank’s holdings in Ares Management were worth $764,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Ares Management by 9.0% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,244,179 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,284,773,000 after acquiring an additional 679,462 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ares Management by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,301,709 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $982,058,000 after purchasing an additional 63,851 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Ares Management by 5.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,826,479 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $596,318,000 after purchasing an additional 187,184 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Ares Management by 0.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,678,177 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $600,830,000 after purchasing an additional 18,773 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Ares Management by 12.4% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,201,863 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $566,826,000 after buying an additional 352,126 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 50.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ARES. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Ares Management from $207.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ares Management in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Ares Management from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $166.00 to $202.00 in a research report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ares Management from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $176.17.

Ares Management Stock Performance

Ares Management stock opened at $139.77 on Friday. Ares Management Co. has a 1-year low of $125.23 and a 1-year 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. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.08 billion, a PE ratio of 68.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $179.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $169.84.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.35 by ($0.12). Ares Management had a return on equity of 16.64% and a net margin of 11.35%. As a group, analysts expect that Ares Management Co. will post 5.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Management Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be issued a $1.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 17th. This represents a $4.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.21%. This is a boost from Ares Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Ares Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 183.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ares Management

In related news, insider R. Kipp Deveer sold 78,933 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.02, for a total value of $14,998,848.66. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,150,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $218,523,000. This represents a 6.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Ashish Bhutani purchased 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $141.33 per share, with a total value of $1,413,300.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 22,905 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,237,163.65. This represents 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 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

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.