Graham Capital Management L.P. Makes New Investment in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES)

Graham Capital Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 2,714 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $480,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Transce3nd LLC purchased a new position in Ares Management in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ares Management by 104.8% in the fourth quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 170 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Noble Wealth Management PBC acquired a new position in shares of Ares Management in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Avalon Trust Co purchased a new position in Ares Management in the fourth quarter valued at about $53,000. Finally, Private Trust Co. NA boosted its holdings in Ares Management by 43.0% in the fourth quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 336 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. 50.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on ARES. Barclays increased their target price on Ares Management from $142.00 to $182.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $156.00 to $182.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Wolfe Research set a $193.00 price objective on shares of Ares Management and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Ares Management from $197.00 to $152.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Ares Management from $188.00 to $166.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ares Management has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $174.50.

Ares Management Trading Down 4.1%

Shares of NYSE ARES opened at $168.63 on Friday. Ares Management Co. has a 12-month low of $110.63 and a 12-month high of $200.49. The company has a market cap of $53.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 83.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $147.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $167.61.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last posted its earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The asset manager reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.15. Ares Management had a return on equity of 16.64% and a net margin of 11.35%. The company had revenue of $951.96 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $914.00 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.80 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Ares Management Co. will post 5.28 EPS for the current year.

Ares Management Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be given a $1.12 dividend. This represents a $4.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. Ares Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 263.53%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ares Management

In other Ares Management news, Director Ashish Bhutani bought 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $141.33 per share, for a total transaction of $1,413,300.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 22,905 shares in the company, valued at $3,237,163.65. The trade was a 77.49% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Bennett Rosenthal sold 69,809 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.01, for a total value of $11,239,947.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 30,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,861,052.91. The trade was a 69.81% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 250,180 shares of company stock worth $39,411,066. 36.86% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.