Korea Investment CORP Lowers Stock Position in Ares Management Corporation $ARES

Korea Investment CORP lowered its position in shares of Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES) by 61.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 52,415 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 85,000 shares during the quarter. Korea Investment CORP’s holdings in Ares Management were worth $7,685,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. IFP Advisors Inc raised its position in shares of Ares Management by 129.6% in the 1st quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 1,988 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $291,000 after purchasing an additional 1,122 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Ares Management by 40.7% in the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 7,960 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,167,000 after purchasing an additional 2,302 shares during the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. raised its position in shares of Ares Management by 4.2% in the 1st quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 53,401 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $7,829,000 after purchasing an additional 2,171 shares during the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Ares Management by 99.5% in the 1st quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 31,765 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,657,000 after purchasing an additional 15,846 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. purchased a new position in shares of Ares Management in the 1st quarter worth about $667,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 50.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ARES has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James Financial initiated coverage on Ares Management in a research report on Monday, July 28th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Ares Management from $189.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Cfra Research upgraded Ares Management to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Wolfe Research set a $193.00 price objective on Ares Management and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Ares Management from $182.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $180.06.

Ares Management Trading Up 1.5%

Ares Management stock opened at $180.8550 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $179.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $166.10. The company has a market cap of $59.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 104.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.40. Ares Management Corporation has a 52-week low of $110.63 and a 52-week high of $200.49. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The asset manager reported $1.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. Ares Management had a net margin of 9.47% and a return on equity of 15.81%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.99 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Ares Management Corporation will post 5.28 EPS for the current year.

Ares Management Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.12 per share. This represents a $4.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 16th. Ares Management’s payout ratio is currently 258.96%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ares Management

In related news, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 105,648 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.65, for a total transaction of $19,190,959.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 44,760 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,130,654. The trade was a 70.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Chairman Bennett Rosenthal sold 85,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.79, for a total value of $14,347,150.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 992,628 shares of company stock worth $177,736,922 in the last three months. 36.86% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ares Management 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.