Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC Boosts Holdings in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES)

Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) by 2.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,799 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the period. Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Ares Management were worth $496,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ARES. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Ares Management by 5.2% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 416,585 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $55,529,000 after acquiring an additional 20,724 shares in the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Ares Management by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 2,430 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $324,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the period. Amalgamated Bank boosted its position in shares of Ares Management by 9.1% during the second quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 12,050 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,606,000 after purchasing an additional 1,008 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its stake in Ares Management by 16.7% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 11,947 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,592,000 after purchasing an additional 1,710 shares during the period. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL raised its holdings in Ares Management by 3.4% in the second quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 67,377 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $8,980,000 after purchasing an additional 2,233 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 50.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Ares Management from $212.00 to $207.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Ares Management from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Barclays boosted their price target on Ares Management from $155.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Ares Management from $136.00 to $162.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ares Management currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $171.92.

Ares Management Price Performance

NYSE ARES opened at $191.69 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05. The company has a market capitalization of $60.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 88.34, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.18. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $177.20 and a 200 day moving average of $160.35. Ares Management Co. has a one year low of $112.83 and a one year high of $192.01.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 1st. The asset manager reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.01. Ares Management had a net margin of 12.51% and a return on equity of 19.89%. The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $833.58 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.83 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Ares Management Co. will post 4.06 EPS for the current year.

Ares Management Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a $0.93 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.94%. Ares Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 171.43%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ryan Berry sold 1,671 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $292,425.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 253,214 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,312,450. This trade represents a 0.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 20,096 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.44, for a total transaction of $3,364,874.24. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 229,904 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,495,125.76. This represents a 8.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 574,167 shares of company stock valued at $99,996,647 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 41.89% of the company’s stock.

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.