Cerity Partners LLC Purchases Shares of 16,572 Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES)

Cerity Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 16,572 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $1,971,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ARES. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC increased its position in shares of Ares Management by 17.6% in the third quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 647 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the period. Rise Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Ares Management by 73.9% in the fourth quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 240 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. increased its position in shares of Ares Management by 33.2% in the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 429 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the period. Capital Impact Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Ares Management by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Capital Impact Advisors LLC now owns 3,500 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $240,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares during the period. Finally, RFG Advisory LLC increased its position in shares of Ares Management by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 11,783 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,002,000 after purchasing an additional 141 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 50.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ARES has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Ares Management from $119.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ares Management in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Ares Management from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Ares Management from $112.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Ares Management from $109.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $126.17.

Ares Management Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of Ares Management stock opened at $129.53 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $133.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $119.73. Ares Management Co. has a 12-month low of $77.97 and a 12-month high of $139.48. The company has a market capitalization of $40.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. Ares Management had a return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 13.06%. The business had revenue of $1.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $862.71 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.21 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ares Management Co. will post 4.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Management Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.93 dividend. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.87%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This is an increase from Ares Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. Ares Management’s dividend payout ratio is 155.65%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ares Management

In other Ares Management news, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 74,585 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.97, for a total value of $9,917,567.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,375,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $182,833,750. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Ares Management news, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 74,585 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.97, for a total value of $9,917,567.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,375,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $182,833,750. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Antony P. Ressler sold 143,569 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.51, for a total value of $18,880,759.19. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,494,440 shares of company stock worth $199,049,946 in the last quarter. 47.34% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ares Management 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.