Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT Grows Holdings in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES)

Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT grew its stake in shares of Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 28,921 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 534 shares during the quarter. Ares Management comprises about 1.2% of Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT’s holdings, making the stock its 21st largest position. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT’s holdings in Ares Management were worth $3,439,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ares Management by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,761,015 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,621,336,000 after acquiring an additional 273,645 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in Ares Management by 27.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,836,590 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $600,410,000 after purchasing an additional 1,255,866 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Ares Management by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,644,429 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $272,033,000 after purchasing an additional 78,781 shares in the last quarter. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Ares Management by 91.2% during the 3rd quarter. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,464,266 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $150,629,000 after purchasing an additional 698,246 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Ares Management by 53.1% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,461,097 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $150,303,000 after purchasing an additional 506,935 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 50.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on ARES shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Ares Management from $119.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $157.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 8th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $156.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Ares Management from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $122.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Ares Management from $109.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $126.17.

Ares Management Stock Performance

ARES traded down $0.11 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $133.62. 501,218 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,089,258. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $133.07 and a 200-day simple moving average of $120.74. Ares Management Co. has a 12 month low of $77.97 and a 12 month high of $139.48. The stock has a market cap of $41.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 8th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. Ares Management had a return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 13.06%. The firm had revenue of $1.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $862.71 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.21 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Ares Management Co. will post 4.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Management Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.93 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Ares Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.78%. Ares Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 155.65%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ares Management news, insider R. Kipp Deveer sold 82,796 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.47, for a total value of $11,299,170.12. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,245,729 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $170,004,636.63. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Ares Management news, insider R. Kipp Deveer sold 82,796 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.47, for a total value of $11,299,170.12. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,245,729 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $170,004,636.63. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 74,585 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.97, for a total value of $9,917,567.45. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,375,000 shares in the company, valued at $182,833,750. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,494,440 shares of company stock valued at $199,049,946 over the last three months. Company insiders own 47.34% of the company’s stock.

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.