New Century Financial Group LLC Acquires 97 Shares of Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES)

New Century Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) by 6.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,688 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 97 shares during the quarter. New Century Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Ares Management were worth $306,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Ares Management by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 65,417 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,195,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ares Management by 5.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 682,985 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $106,436,000 after buying an additional 36,476 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank grew its stake in shares of Ares Management by 31.2% during the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 22,750 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,545,000 after acquiring an additional 5,404 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of 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. Finally, Caldwell Investment Management Ltd. increased its stake in Ares Management by 134.1% in the 4th quarter. Caldwell Investment Management Ltd. now owns 10,300 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,842,000 after buying an additional 5,900 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 50.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ARES has been the subject of several research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Ares Management from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $166.00 to $202.00 in a research note on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com lowered Ares Management from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Ares Management from $212.00 to $207.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $171.92.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ryan Berry sold 14,357 shares of Ares Management stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.16, for a total value of $2,586,557.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 233,214 shares in the company, valued at $42,015,834.24. The trade was a 5.80 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 214,079 shares in the company, valued at $35,802,571.96. This represents a 6.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 574,167 shares of company stock valued at $99,996,647 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Ares Management Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE ARES opened at $197.39 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $61.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 90.96, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.18. Ares Management Co. has a 1-year low of $117.47 and a 1-year high of $197.53. The business’s 50 day moving average is $179.15 and its two-hundred day moving average is $161.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last posted its earnings results on Friday, November 1st. The asset manager reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $833.58 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.83 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Ares Management Co. will post 4.05 EPS for the current year.

Ares Management Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a $0.93 dividend. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.88%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. Ares Management’s payout ratio is 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.