Wellington Management Group LLP Has $2.67 Billion Holdings in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES)

Wellington Management Group LLP cut its stake in shares of Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) by 8.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 17,145,631 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,507,058 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP owned about 0.05% of Ares Management worth $2,671,975,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ARES. MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Ares Management by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 11,538 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,798,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC boosted its holdings in Ares Management by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 6,392 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,070,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Ares Management by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,560 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $399,000 after buying an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. raised its position in shares of Ares Management by 21.0% during the 3rd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 559 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $87,000 after buying an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Finally, West Oak Capital LLC raised its position in Ares Management by 40.0% in the 2nd quarter. West Oak Capital LLC now owns 350 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. 50.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ARES has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Ares Management from $158.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Ares Management from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $155.00 to $174.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Ares Management from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Ares Management from $136.00 to $162.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $166.36.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ares Management news, Chairman Bennett Rosenthal sold 75,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.05, for a total transaction of $10,728,750.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Ryan Berry sold 1,671 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $292,425.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 253,214 shares in the company, valued at $44,312,450. This represents a 0.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 608,530 shares of company stock worth $101,686,460 in the last three months. 1.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Ares Management Price Performance

ARES opened at $177.07 on Friday. Ares Management Co. has a 52-week low of $107.69 and a 52-week high of $180.38. The stock has a market cap of $55.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 81.60, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.19. The business has a fifty day moving average of $167.47 and a 200 day moving average of $151.19. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last issued its earnings results on Friday, November 1st. The asset manager reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $833.58 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.83 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ares Management Co. will post 4.06 EPS for the current year.

Ares Management Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.93 per share. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. Ares Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 171.43%.

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.