Nicholas Wealth LLC. Buys 648 Shares of Ares Management Corporation $ARES

Nicholas Wealth LLC. lifted its stake in shares of Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES) by 9.0% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 7,847 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 648 shares during the quarter. Nicholas Wealth LLC.’s holdings in Ares Management were worth $1,359,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. CWM LLC increased its holdings in Ares Management by 9.6% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,950 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $432,000 after purchasing an additional 258 shares in the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc boosted its stake in shares of Ares Management by 129.6% during the first quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 1,988 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $291,000 after purchasing an additional 1,122 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Alliance LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ares Management during the first quarter worth about $493,000. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its stake in shares of Ares Management by 8.6% in the first quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 18,430 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,702,000 after buying an additional 1,460 shares during the period. Finally, GW&K Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Ares Management by 69.5% in the 1st quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 373 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 153 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 50.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, Chairman Antony P. Ressler sold 196,197 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.79, for a total transaction of $35,078,061.63. Following the transaction, the chairman directly owned 1,424,538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $254,693,149.02. This represents a 12.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,115,877 shares of company stock worth $377,766,128. 36.86% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ARES has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Ares Management from $178.00 to $175.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Ares Management in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. Raymond James Financial assumed coverage on Ares Management in a report on Monday, July 28th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. JMP Securities lifted their target price on Ares Management from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, Oppenheimer set a $190.00 price target on Ares Management and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $187.46.

Ares Management Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:ARES opened at $142.49 on Wednesday. Ares Management Corporation has a 1 year low of $110.63 and a 1 year high of $200.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08. The business’s 50-day moving average is $157.02 and its 200-day moving average is $168.87. The company has a market capitalization of $46.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 82.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.45.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last issued its earnings results on Friday, October 31st. The asset manager reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.05. Ares Management had a return on equity of 15.81% and a net margin of 9.47%.The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.55 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Ares Management Corporation will post 5.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Management Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 17th will be paid a $0.8438 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 17th. This represents a $3.38 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Ares Management’s payout ratio is currently 192.27%.

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.