First Manhattan CO. LLC. Acquires 83 Shares of Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES)

First Manhattan CO. LLC. lifted its holdings in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 17,628 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 83 shares during the period. First Manhattan CO. LLC.’s holdings in Ares Management were worth $3,121,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Ares Management during the 4th quarter valued at $335,858,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ares Management by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 715,258 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $126,622,000 after acquiring an additional 32,273 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 679,462 shares during the last quarter. Caldwell Investment Management Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Ares Management by 134.1% during the 4th quarter. Caldwell Investment Management Ltd. now owns 10,300 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,842,000 after purchasing an additional 5,900 shares during the period. Finally, Donoghue Forlines LLC bought a new position in Ares Management during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,498,000. 50.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ares Management Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of Ares Management stock opened at $164.93 on Friday. 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 company has a market cap of $52.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 81.25, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.40. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $146.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $167.53. Ares Management Co. has a 52-week low of $110.63 and a 52-week high of $200.49.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The asset manager reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $951.96 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $914.00 million. Ares Management had a return on equity of 16.64% and a net margin of 11.35%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.80 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Ares Management Co. will post 5.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Management Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.12 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 16th. This represents a $4.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.72%. Ares Management’s payout ratio is 263.53%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Ashish Bhutani bought 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 22,905 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,237,163.65. The trade was a 77.49 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider David B. Kaplan sold 69,526 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.99, for a total value of $11,192,990.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 30,474 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,906,009.26. This trade represents a 69.53 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 250,180 shares of company stock worth $39,411,066 over the last 90 days. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Wolfe Research set a $193.00 target price on Ares Management and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Ares Management from $197.00 to $152.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Ares Management from $156.00 to $182.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Ares Management from $216.00 to $161.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Ares Management from $142.00 to $182.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.50.

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.