Perpetual Ltd Sells 60,702 Shares of Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES)

Perpetual Ltd lessened its holdings in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) by 12.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 440,198 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 60,702 shares during the period. Perpetual Ltd’s holdings in Ares Management were worth $77,928,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ARES. Lone Pine Capital LLC bought a new stake in Ares Management in the second quarter valued at about $209,884,000. Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ares Management by 722.6% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,738,148 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $231,660,000 after purchasing an additional 1,526,856 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake 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 valued at $1,284,773,000 after purchasing an additional 679,462 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ares Management by 31.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,849,737 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $444,103,000 after purchasing an additional 678,549 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ares Management by 26.4% in the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,344,383 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $229,056,000 after buying an additional 280,656 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 50.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ares Management news, insider Ryan Berry sold 1,671 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $292,425.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 253,214 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,312,450. This represents a 0.66 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 15,825 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.24, for a total value of $2,646,573.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 214,079 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,802,571.96. This represents a 6.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 574,167 shares of company stock valued at $99,996,647. 41.89% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on ARES shares. Barclays boosted their price target on Ares Management from $155.00 to $174.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Ares Management from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Ares Management from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ares Management from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $158.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $171.92.

Ares Management Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of ARES opened at $191.69 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $177.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $160.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $60.01 billion, a PE ratio of 88.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.18. Ares Management Co. has a 12-month low of $112.83 and a 12-month high of $192.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last issued its earnings results on Friday, November 1st. The asset manager reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.01. Ares Management had a net margin of 12.51% and a return on equity of 19.89%. The company had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $833.58 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.83 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Ares Management Co. will post 4.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Management Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a $0.93 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.94%. Ares Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 171.43%.

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.