Ellsworth Advisors LLC Has $994,000 Position in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES)

Ellsworth Advisors LLC grew its position in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) by 10.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,358 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 764 shares during the quarter. Ellsworth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ares Management were worth $994,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Ares Management by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,761,015 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,621,336,000 after buying an additional 273,645 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in Ares Management by 7.3% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 11,389,511 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,097,379,000 after purchasing an additional 771,052 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Ares Management by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,068,718 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $295,671,000 after purchasing an additional 66,003 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Ares Management by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,644,429 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $272,033,000 after purchasing an additional 78,781 shares in the last quarter. 50.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on ARES shares. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Ares Management from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $122.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $112.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. 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 report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of Ares Management from $146.00 to $157.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $123.45.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider R. Kipp Deveer sold 82,796 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.47, for a total transaction of $11,299,170.12. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,245,729 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $170,004,636.63. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, insider R. Kipp Deveer sold 82,796 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.47, for a total transaction of $11,299,170.12. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,245,729 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $170,004,636.63. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Antony P. Ressler sold 48,572 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.69, for a total transaction of $6,445,018.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 543,001 shares of company stock valued at $72,551,374. 47.34% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ares Management Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:ARES traded down $0.30 during trading on Friday, reaching $132.98. The stock had a trading volume of 784,603 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,045,015. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $130.14 and its 200 day moving average is $116.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. Ares Management Co. has a 52 week low of $77.97 and a 52 week high of $139.48. The stock has a market cap of $41.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.63, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.18.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 8th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. Ares Management had a net margin of 13.06% and a return on equity of 21.01%. The company had revenue of $1.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $862.71 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.21 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ares Management Co. will post 4.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Management Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be paid a $0.93 dividend. 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 dividend yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 14th. Ares Management’s dividend payout ratio is currently 155.65%.

Ares Management Company 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.