River Road Asset Management LLC Decreases Holdings in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES)

River Road Asset Management LLC trimmed its position in shares of Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) by 22.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 52,175 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 15,023 shares during the quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Ares Management were worth $6,205,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ares Management by 1.8% during 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 stake in Ares Management by 7.1% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 10,618,459 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $886,004,000 after purchasing an additional 701,738 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in Ares Management by 27.4% in 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. State Street Corp increased its stake in Ares Management by 2.2% in 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 during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 78,781 shares during the period. 50.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ares Management

In other Ares Management news, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 74,585 shares of Ares Management 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,375,000 shares in the company, valued at $182,833,750. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Chairman Bennett Rosenthal sold 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.72, for a total value of $6,486,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 74,585 shares of the business’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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $182,833,750. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,350,871 shares of company stock worth $180,169,187. 47.34% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Ares Management Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE ARES opened at $131.69 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. Ares Management Co. has a twelve month low of $77.97 and a twelve month high of $139.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.77 billion, a PE ratio of 55.10, a P/E/G ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.17. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $133.46 and its 200 day moving average is $119.47.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 previous year, the company posted $1.21 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Ares Management Co. will post 4.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Management Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.93 per share. This is a boost from Ares Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.82%. Ares Management’s payout ratio is presently 155.65%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ARES has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target 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. Barclays cut their price objective on Ares Management from $157.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted 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. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Ares Management from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $122.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, UBS Group lifted 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ares Management presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $126.17.

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.