Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 1,500 Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES)

Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES) in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 1,500 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $220,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ares Management by 3,262.5% in the 1st quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 269 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 261 shares during the period. Inscription Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Management in the 1st quarter worth approximately $374,000. Sowell Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Management in the 1st quarter worth approximately $222,000. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Management in the 1st quarter worth approximately $60,000. Finally, Everhart Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ares Management by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,562 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $815,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. 50.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Ares Management news, insider David B. Kaplan sold 62,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.36, for a total value of $10,585,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 62,500 shares in the company, valued at $10,585,000. This represents a 50.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 110,845 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.17, for a total transaction of $16,978,128.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,400,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $214,438,000. The trade was a 7.34% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 983,990 shares of company stock worth $163,182,482 over the last 90 days. 0.52% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Ares Management Stock Down 1.1%

ARES stock opened at $165.20 on Wednesday. Ares Management Corporation has a 52-week low of $110.63 and a 52-week high of $200.49. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $159.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $166.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $53.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 97.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.38.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last released its quarterly 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 net margin of 9.73% and a return on equity of 16.29%. The business had revenue of $951.96 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $914.00 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.80 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ares Management Corporation will post 5.28 EPS for the current year.

Ares Management Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.12 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 16th. This represents a $4.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.71%. Ares Management’s dividend payout ratio is currently 263.53%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ARES. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Ares Management from $197.00 to $152.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. JMP Securities upped their price target on shares of Ares Management from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Wolfe Research set a $193.00 target price on shares of Ares Management and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Ares Management from $221.00 to $201.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Ares Management from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.94.

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.