New York State Common Retirement Fund Raises Stock Holdings in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES)

New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its stake in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) by 30.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 423,508 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 99,333 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Ares Management were worth $50,364,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ares Management by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 16,636 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,978,000 after purchasing an additional 1,169 shares in the last quarter. Duality Advisers LP bought a new position in shares of Ares Management during the fourth quarter valued at $1,283,000. Cetera Trust Company N.A bought a new position in shares of Ares Management during the fourth quarter valued at $379,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its holdings in shares of Ares Management by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 31,281 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,720,000 after purchasing an additional 1,381 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ares Management by 12.7% during the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,877 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $223,000 after purchasing an additional 212 shares in the last quarter. 50.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ARES. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Ares Management from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. 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 report on Wednesday, January 24th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Ares Management in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Ares Management from $119.00 to $141.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on Ares Management from $156.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $126.17.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ares Management

In other Ares Management news, Chairman Antony P. Ressler sold 143,569 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.51, for a total transaction of $18,880,759.19. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 74,585 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.97, for a total value of $9,917,567.45. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,375,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $182,833,750. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Antony P. Ressler sold 143,569 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.51, for a total value of $18,880,759.19. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,494,440 shares of company stock worth $199,049,946 in the last quarter. 47.34% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ares Management Stock Up 3.4 %

NYSE ARES opened at $136.54 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. Ares Management Co. has a 52 week low of $77.97 and a 52 week high of $139.48. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $133.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $120.38. The company has a market capitalization of $42.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.17.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last released its earnings results 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $862.71 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.21 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Ares Management Co. will post 4.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Management Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.93 per share. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This is a boost from Ares Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. Ares Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 155.65%.

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.