Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Raises Position in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lifted its stake in shares of Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) by 3.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,704 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 470 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Ares Management were worth $1,511,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Ares Management by 1.8% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,761,015 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,621,336,000 after acquiring an additional 273,645 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Ares Management by 27.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,836,590 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $600,410,000 after purchasing an additional 1,255,866 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Ares Management by 3.1% in the 3rd 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. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Ares Management by 91.2% during the third quarter. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,464,266 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $150,629,000 after buying an additional 698,246 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Ares Management by 53.1% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,461,097 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $150,303,000 after acquiring an additional 506,935 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 50.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other 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 transaction of $9,917,567.45. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,375,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $182,833,750. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, insider R. Kipp Deveer sold 80,637 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 1,116,676 shares in the company, valued at $151,030,429. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 74,585 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 1,375,000 shares in the company, valued at $182,833,750. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,494,440 shares of company stock worth $199,049,946 in the last three months. Insiders own 41.89% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on ARES. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Ares Management from $119.00 to $141.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 9th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on Ares Management in a research note on Tuesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $154.00 price objective on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Ares Management from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 12th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Ares Management from $156.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Ares Management in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $128.08.

Ares Management Stock Up 0.4 %

Ares Management stock traded up $0.59 on Wednesday, hitting $137.88. 160,768 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,032,602. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $133.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $122.20. The firm has a market cap of $42.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 61.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 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 Co. has a 1 year low of $80.07 and a 1 year high of $140.35.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $707.36 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $814.88 million. Ares Management had a return on equity of 21.63% and a net margin of 12.86%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.71 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ares Management Co. will post 4.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Management Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a dividend of $0.93 per share. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 13th. Ares Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 166.82%.

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.