Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) Shares Sold by Partners Group Holding AG

Partners Group Holding AG decreased its holdings in shares of Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) by 8.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 251,558 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 23,652 shares during the quarter. Ares Management makes up approximately 1.6% of Partners Group Holding AG’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Partners Group Holding AG owned approximately 0.08% of Ares Management worth $44,533,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ares Management by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,807,718 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,329,530,000 after purchasing an additional 907,757 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC increased its position in Ares Management by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 115,176 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $20,390,000 after buying an additional 16,001 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in Ares Management in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $11,135,000. Sei Investments Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Ares Management by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 232,698 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $41,195,000 after acquiring an additional 16,144 shares during the period. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP grew its position in shares of Ares Management by 13.8% during the fourth quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 21,213 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,755,000 after acquiring an additional 2,580 shares during the last quarter. 50.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ARES has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ares Management in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Ares Management from $215.00 to $187.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Ares Management from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $166.00 to $202.00 in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Barclays lowered their target price on Ares Management from $224.00 to $217.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Ares Management from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ares Management has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $173.83.

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman Bennett Rosenthal sold 69,809 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.01, for a total transaction of $11,239,947.09. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 30,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,861,052.91. The trade was a 69.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider R. Kipp Deveer sold 78,933 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.02, for a total value of $14,998,848.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,150,000 shares in the company, valued at $218,523,000. This trade represents a 6.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 218,268 shares of company stock valued at $37,431,786 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Ares Management Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of ARES stock opened at $147.95 on Friday. Ares Management Co. has a fifty-two week low of $125.23 and a fifty-two week high of $200.49. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $175.33 and a 200-day simple moving average of $170.06. The stock has a market cap of $46.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 72.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.23.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.35 by ($0.12). Ares Management had a net margin of 11.35% and a return on equity of 16.64%. On average, analysts forecast that Ares Management Co. will post 5.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Management Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be issued a dividend of $1.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. This is an increase from Ares Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.03%. Ares Management’s payout ratio is 183.25%.

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.