5,140 Shares in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) Purchased by Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC

Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC purchased a new stake in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 5,140 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $910,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ARES. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Ares Management by 9.0% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,244,179 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,284,773,000 after purchasing an additional 679,462 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Ares Management by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,301,709 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $982,058,000 after buying an additional 63,851 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Ares Management by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,826,479 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $596,318,000 after acquiring an additional 187,184 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ares Management by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,678,177 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $600,830,000 after acquiring an additional 18,773 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Ares Management by 6.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,950,451 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $459,580,000 after acquiring an additional 175,627 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 50.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Ares Management from $212.00 to $207.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Ares Management from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $155.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Ares Management from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $166.00 to $202.00 in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Ares Management from $158.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $171.92.

Ares Management Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of Ares Management stock traded up $2.07 on Friday, hitting $189.97. 53,580 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 919,479. Ares Management Co. has a one year low of $112.83 and a one year high of $190.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $59.47 billion, a PE ratio of 87.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.18. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $176.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $159.59.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last released its earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $833.58 million. Ares Management had a return on equity of 19.89% and a net margin of 12.51%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.83 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Ares Management Co. will post 4.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Management Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a $0.93 dividend. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. Ares Management’s payout ratio is presently 171.43%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ares Management

In other news, insider Ryan Berry sold 18,329 shares of Ares Management stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.18, for a total transaction of $3,210,874.22. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 254,885 shares in the company, valued at $44,650,754.30. The trade was a 6.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 15,825 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.24, for a total value of $2,646,573.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 214,079 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,802,571.96. The trade was a 6.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 574,167 shares of company stock valued at $99,996,647. Corporate insiders own 41.89% of the company’s stock.

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.