Benjamin Edwards Inc. Grows Stake in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES)

Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its holdings in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) by 1,269.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 87,130 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 80,769 shares during the quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc.’s holdings in Ares Management were worth $13,579,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ares Management by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 65,417 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,195,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of Ares Management by 24.6% in the 2nd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 192,634 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $25,674,000 after purchasing an additional 38,047 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ares Management by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 682,985 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $106,436,000 after purchasing an additional 36,476 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of Ares Management by 45.9% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 82,717 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $11,000,000 after buying an additional 26,012 shares during the period. Finally, Retireful LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Management in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $696,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 50.03% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 20,096 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.44, for a total value of $3,364,874.24. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 229,904 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,495,125.76. The trade was a 8.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Chairman Bennett Rosenthal sold 29,107 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.15, for a total value of $5,127,198.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 666,030 shares of company stock worth $109,779,010 over the last quarter. 1.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on ARES shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Ares Management from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Ares Management from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Ares Management from $184.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Ares Management from $172.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Ares Management from $155.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $166.36.

Ares Management Price Performance

ARES stock opened at $173.94 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $166.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $150.62. Ares Management Co. has a 12-month low of $107.69 and a 12-month high of $180.38. 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 company has a market cap of $54.45 billion, a PE ratio of 80.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.20.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 1st. The asset manager reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.01. Ares Management had a return on equity of 19.89% and a net margin of 12.51%. The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $833.58 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.83 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Ares Management Co. will post 4.06 EPS for the current year.

Ares Management Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.93 per share. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.14%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 17th. Ares Management’s dividend payout ratio is presently 171.43%.

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.