California Public Employees Retirement System Has $35.76 Million Holdings in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES)

California Public Employees Retirement System lowered its stake in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 300,727 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 5,894 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Ares Management were worth $35,762,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hartford Financial Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ares Management by 47.4% in the fourth quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 280 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC lifted 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 buying an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. lifted 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 buying an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Ares Management by 76.7% in the fourth quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 318 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Avantax Advisory Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ares Management by 6.9% during the 3rd quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 2,558 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $263,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 50.03% of the company’s stock.

Ares Management Trading Down 0.1 %

ARES stock opened at $133.56 on Friday. Ares Management Co. has a 1-year low of $77.97 and a 1-year high of $139.48. The firm has a market cap of $41.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.17. The business’s 50 day moving average is $133.07 and its 200-day moving average is $120.74. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 8th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $862.71 million. Ares Management had a return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 13.06%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.21 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Ares Management Co. will post 4.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Management Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.93 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Ares Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.79%. Ares Management’s dividend payout ratio is 155.65%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on ARES. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Ares Management from $156.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Ares Management from $112.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Ares Management from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. Barclays cut their price objective on Ares Management from $157.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Ares Management from $119.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ares Management currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $126.17.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider R. Kipp Deveer sold 80,637 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.25, for a total transaction of $10,906,154.25. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,116,676 shares in the company, valued at approximately $151,030,429. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Ares Management news, insider R. Kipp Deveer sold 80,637 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.25, for a total value of $10,906,154.25. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,116,676 shares in the company, valued at approximately $151,030,429. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Chairman Antony P. Ressler sold 174,258 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.89, for a total value of $23,505,661.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,494,440 shares of company stock worth $199,049,946 in the last three months. Insiders own 47.34% 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.