Allstate Corp Purchases Shares of 5,468 Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES)

Allstate Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 5,468 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $968,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted 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 worth $29,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. Point72 DIFC Ltd bought a new position in shares of Ares Management in the third quarter worth about $36,000. Noble Wealth Management PBC bought a new position in shares of Ares Management in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Ares Management by 53.4% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 227 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Avalon Trust Co bought a new stake in Ares Management during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $53,000. 50.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ARES. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $224.00 to $217.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ares Management in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Ares Management from $215.00 to $187.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Ares Management from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $166.00 to $202.00 in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Ares Management from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ares Management currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $173.83.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ares Management news, Director Ashish Bhutani bought 10,000 shares of Ares Management stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $141.33 per share, for a total transaction of $1,413,300.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 22,905 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,237,163.65. This trade represents a 77.49 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider R. Kipp Deveer sold 78,933 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.02, for a total transaction of $14,998,848.66. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,150,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $218,523,000. This represents a 6.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 329,113 shares of company stock valued at $54,409,915 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Ares Management Stock Performance

NYSE ARES opened at $146.56 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $171.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $170.68. Ares Management Co. has a fifty-two week low of $125.23 and a fifty-two week high of $200.49. The company has a market cap of $46.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 72.20, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05.

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%. Sell-side analysts predict that Ares Management Co. will post 5.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Management Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 17th were given a $1.12 dividend. This is a positive change from Ares Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 17th. Ares Management’s dividend payout ratio is 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.