Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) Shares Acquired by Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd.

Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) by 26.7% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 91,417 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,280 shares during the quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Ares Management were worth $12,157,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Ares Management by 45.5% during the 3rd quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 3,536 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $364,000 after buying an additional 1,105 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of Ares Management by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 10,973 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,310,000 after acquiring an additional 461 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. raised its position in shares of Ares Management by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 4,962 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $590,000 after acquiring an additional 350 shares in the last quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd lifted its stake in Ares Management by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 31,462 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,741,000 after purchasing an additional 1,121 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Everhart Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Ares Management by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,119 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $371,000 after purchasing an additional 338 shares during the period. 50.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ARES. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Ares Management from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $176.00 to $132.00 in a report on Thursday, June 13th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $150.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. TD Cowen decreased their target price on Ares Management from $168.00 to $158.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 8th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Ares Management from $160.00 to $158.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $150.00 price target on shares of Ares Management in a report on Wednesday, May 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ares Management currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $134.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 157,837 shares of Ares Management stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.22, for a total transaction of $23,394,600.14. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 92,163 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,660,399.86. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, insider David B. Kaplan sold 125,000 shares of Ares Management stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.94, for a total value of $16,492,500.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 157,837 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.22, for a total transaction of $23,394,600.14. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 92,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,660,399.86. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 661,254 shares of company stock valued at $91,687,892 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Ares Management Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of Ares Management stock opened at $147.29 on Friday. Ares Management Co. has a 1-year low of $96.00 and a 1-year high of $150.12. The company has a market capitalization of $45.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 66.05, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.22. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $139.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $133.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The asset manager reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.93 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $707.36 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $814.88 million. Ares Management had a return on equity of 21.22% and a net margin of 12.86%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.71 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ares Management Co. will post 4.24 EPS for the current year.

Ares Management Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were paid a dividend of $0.93 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.53%. Ares Management’s dividend payout ratio is presently 166.82%.

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.