Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) Short Interest Update

Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES – Get Rating) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,500,000 shares, a decrease of 7.2% from the January 31st total of 3,770,000 shares. Currently, 2.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,190,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.9 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ARES has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Ares Management from $87.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 10th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $78.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 15th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $93.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 14th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $86.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $81.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $95.00.

Ares Management Stock Down 1.7 %

Ares Management stock opened at $82.31 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $78.97 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $74.74. The firm has a market cap of $24.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 96.84, a PEG ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. Ares Management has a 52-week low of $53.15 and a 52-week high of $87.50.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 9th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $937.72 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $813.69 million. Ares Management had a net margin of 5.48% and a return on equity of 16.82%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.85 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Ares Management will post 4.02 EPS for the current year.

Ares Management Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 17th will be paid a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 16th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.74%. This is a positive change from Ares Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. Ares Management’s payout ratio is currently 362.35%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ares Management news, Chairman Antony P. Ressler sold 25,269 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.19, for a total transaction of $2,152,666.11. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 712,670 shares in the company, valued at $60,712,357.30. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, Chairman Antony P. Ressler sold 25,269 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.19, for a total value of $2,152,666.11. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 712,670 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,712,357.30. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Corporate Opportunities F. Ares sold 4,770,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.06, for a total transaction of $124,306,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 14,326,090 shares in the company, valued at $373,337,905.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have bought 3,660,902 shares of company stock worth $5,812,824 and have sold 5,221,973 shares worth $161,492,492. Corporate insiders own 47.38% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ares Management

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ARES. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Ares Management by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,038,275 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,140,328,000 after purchasing an additional 458,646 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in Ares Management by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,191,021 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $502,895,000 after purchasing an additional 45,745 shares during the period. HMI Capital Management L.P. grew its position in Ares Management by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. HMI Capital Management L.P. now owns 3,987,588 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $247,031,000 after purchasing an additional 188,618 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in Ares Management by 21.4% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,270,329 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $223,821,000 after purchasing an additional 576,836 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Ares Management by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,359,803 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $161,505,000 after purchasing an additional 144,807 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 47.96% of the company’s stock.

About Ares Management

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Ares Management Corp. is engaged in providing investment management and consultancy services. It operates through the following segments: Credit Group, Private Equity Group and Real Estate Group. The Credit Group segment offers credit strategies across the liquid and illiquid spectrum, including syndicated bank loans, high yield bonds, credit opportunities, special situations, asset-backed investments and U.S.