Barclays Reiterates “Overweight” Rating for Ares Management (NYSE:ARES)

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reissued by investment analysts at Barclays in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $224.00 price objective on the asset manager’s stock. Barclays‘s price objective indicates a potential upside of 13.48% from the company’s current price.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Ares Management from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $166.00 to $202.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Ares Management from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $136.00 to $162.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Ares Management from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Ares Management from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. One 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $176.08.

Ares Management Stock Performance

Shares of Ares Management stock opened at $197.39 on Monday. 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $179.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $162.36. Ares Management has a fifty-two week low of $117.47 and a fifty-two week high of $197.53. The firm has a market cap of $61.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 90.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.18.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last released its earnings results on Friday, November 1st. The asset manager reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.01. Ares Management had a return on equity of 19.89% and a net margin of 12.51%. The company had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $833.58 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.83 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Ares Management will post 4.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 15,825 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.24, for a total transaction of $2,646,573.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 214,079 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,802,571.96. This represents a 6.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Ryan Berry sold 18,329 shares of Ares Management stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.18, for a total value of $3,210,874.22. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 254,885 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,650,754.30. This represents a 6.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 574,167 shares of company stock worth $99,996,647. Company insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ares Management

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB bought a new position in shares of Ares Management in the 4th quarter valued at about $513,000. Mather Group LLC. grew its stake in Ares Management by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 2,305 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $408,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT increased its position in shares of Ares Management by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT now owns 26,490 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,689,000 after purchasing an additional 389 shares during the last quarter. Rheos Capital Works Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ares Management during the 4th quarter worth approximately $11,826,000. Finally, CENTRAL TRUST Co boosted its holdings in shares of Ares Management by 1,572.7% in the 4th quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 368 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $65,000 after buying an additional 346 shares during the last quarter. 50.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ares Management Company 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.