Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. Acquires 35,127 Shares of Ares Management Corporation $ARES

Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES) by 55.7% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 98,225 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 35,127 shares during the quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Ares Management were worth $17,013,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Ares Management by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,189,991 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,813,445,000 after acquiring an additional 382,273 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Ares Management by 0.4% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,308,330 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,218,084,000 after purchasing an additional 30,451 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Ares Management by 7.6% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,454,083 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $596,280,000 after purchasing an additional 244,286 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in Ares Management by 0.3% in the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 1,902,603 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $278,941,000 after purchasing an additional 5,424 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its position in Ares Management by 5.5% in the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,727,563 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $253,278,000 after purchasing an additional 90,101 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 50.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ARES. Oppenheimer set a $190.00 target price on shares of Ares Management and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $215.00 price objective on shares of Ares Management in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Cfra Research raised Ares Management to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Ares Management in a research note on Monday. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $178.00 to $175.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ares Management currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $187.46.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ares Management news, Chairman Antony P. Ressler sold 196,197 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.79, for a total value of $35,078,061.63. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman directly owned 1,424,538 shares in the company, valued at $254,693,149.02. This represents a 12.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 1,989,059 shares of company stock worth $355,167,794 over the last quarter. 36.86% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Ares Management Stock Performance

NYSE:ARES opened at $145.22 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $156.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $168.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $47.47 billion, a PE ratio of 83.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.45. Ares Management Corporation has a 52-week low of $110.63 and a 52-week high of $200.49.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 31st. The asset manager reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.05. Ares Management had a return on equity of 15.81% and a net margin of 9.47%.The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.55 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Ares Management Corporation will post 5.28 EPS for the current year.

Ares Management Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.8438 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 17th. This represents a $3.38 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. Ares Management’s payout ratio is currently 192.27%.

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.