Oak Thistle LLC Invests $398,000 in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES)

Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new stake in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 2,992 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $398,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ARES. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Ares Management by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,392,349 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,949,378,000 after acquiring an additional 631,334 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Ares Management by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,872,559 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $460,525,000 after purchasing an additional 71,819 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Ares Management by 3.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,644,429 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $272,033,000 after buying an additional 78,781 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Ares Management during the fourth quarter valued at about $205,499,000. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Ares Management by 216.3% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,253,644 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $149,083,000 after buying an additional 857,245 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 50.03% of the company’s stock.

Ares Management Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ARES opened at $136.19 on Tuesday. Ares Management Co. has a one year low of $92.95 and a one year high of $150.12. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $138.03 and a 200 day simple moving average of $130.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.07, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.22.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The asset manager reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by ($0.13). The business had revenue of $707.36 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 business posted $0.71 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Ares Management Co. will post 4.27 EPS for the current year.

Ares Management Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th were issued a $0.93 dividend. 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 2.73%. Ares Management’s payout ratio is presently 166.82%.

Insider Transactions at Ares Management

In other Ares Management news, Chairman Bennett Rosenthal sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.72, for a total value of $6,486,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 157,837 shares of Ares Management stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.22, for a total value of $23,394,600.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 92,163 shares in the company, valued at $13,660,399.86. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Bennett Rosenthal sold 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.72, for a total value of $6,486,000.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,544,846 shares of company stock valued at $209,247,962. Corporate insiders own 41.89% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ARES has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group raised their price objective on Ares Management from $156.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Ares Management from $153.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $154.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 22nd. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ares Management in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Ares Management from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $176.00 to $132.00 in a report on Thursday, June 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $130.29.

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.