Private Advisor Group LLC Decreases Stake in Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES)

Private Advisor Group LLC lowered its position in shares of Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES) by 9.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,633 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 372 shares during the quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in Ares Management were worth $533,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Ares Management by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 10,753,779 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,903,741,000 after acquiring an additional 223,919 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Ares Management by 12.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,109,070 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,258,519,000 after acquiring an additional 807,361 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in Ares Management by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,126,442 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $907,534,000 after acquiring an additional 66,671 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in Ares Management by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 3,727,597 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $659,896,000 after acquiring an additional 302,303 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Ares Management by 4.8% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,354,032 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $491,735,000 after acquiring an additional 152,169 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 50.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ARES. Citigroup reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Ares Management in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Bank of America cut their target price on Ares Management from $221.00 to $201.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Ares Management from $188.00 to $166.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Citizens Jmp raised Ares Management from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Ares Management from $197.00 to $152.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ares Management has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $177.50.

Ares Management Price Performance

Shares of ARES opened at $188.06 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $61.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 110.62, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.37. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $172.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $166.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.07. Ares Management Corporation has a 12 month low of $110.63 and a 12 month high of $200.49.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 5th. The asset manager reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $951.96 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $914.00 million. Ares Management had a return on equity of 16.29% and a net margin of 9.73%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.80 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Ares Management Corporation will post 5.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Management Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th were paid a dividend of $1.12 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $4.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.38%. Ares Management’s payout ratio is currently 263.53%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider David B. Kaplan sold 62,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.36, for a total transaction of $10,585,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 62,500 shares in the company, valued at $10,585,000. This represents a 50.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Bennett Rosenthal sold 85,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.79, for a total value of $14,347,150.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 873,145 shares of company stock worth $146,204,353 in the last three months. 0.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.