Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC Takes Position in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES)

Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 815 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $144,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ARES. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Ares Management by 67.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 162 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. Point72 DIFC Ltd purchased a new position in Ares Management in the third quarter worth approximately $36,000. Noble Wealth Management PBC acquired a new stake in Ares Management during the fourth quarter worth $36,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Ares Management by 53.4% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 227 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the period. Finally, Avalon Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Ares Management in the 4th quarter valued at $53,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 50.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ARES has been the topic of several research analyst reports. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ares Management in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Ares Management from $224.00 to $217.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com cut shares of Ares Management from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. 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. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price target on Ares Management from $221.00 to $201.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $176.38.

Ares Management Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ARES opened at $117.54 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The company has a market cap of $37.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.23. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $166.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $170.09. Ares Management Co. has a 1-year low of $113.24 and a 1-year high of $200.49.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by ($0.12). Ares Management had a return on equity of 16.64% and a net margin of 11.35%. Analysts forecast that Ares Management Co. will post 5.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Management Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 17th were given a dividend of $1.12 per share. This is a boost from Ares Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 17th. Ares Management’s payout ratio is 183.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ares Management news, Director Ashish Bhutani purchased 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $141.33 per share, with a total value of $1,413,300.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 22,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,237,163.65. This represents a 77.49 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 110,845 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.17, for a total value of $16,978,128.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,400,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $214,438,000. The trade was a 7.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 329,113 shares of company stock worth $54,409,915. Corporate insiders own 41.89% of the company’s stock.

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.