Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Makes New Investment in Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES)

Key Points

• Banque Cantonale Vaudoise acquired 3,822 shares of Ares Management Corporation valued at approximately $560,000 in the first quarter, indicating growing interest from institutional investors.
• CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 182,108 shares of the company's stock for over $30 million, reducing his stake by 34.18%.
• Ares Management announced a quarterly dividend of $1.12 per share, which equates to an annual yield of 2.4%, despite having a high dividend payout ratio of 263.53%.

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise bought a new position in shares of Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 3,822 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $560,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Transce3nd LLC bought a new position in Ares Management in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Ares Management by 104.8% in the fourth quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 170 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares during the period. Elequin Capital LP acquired a new position in Ares Management during the 4th quarter worth about $33,000. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ares Management in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Global Financial Private Client LLC increased its stake in shares of Ares Management by 125.6% in the first quarter. Global Financial Private Client LLC now owns 264 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 147 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 50.03% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on ARES shares. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Ares Management from $197.00 to $152.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Ares Management from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Ares Management from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $165.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Ares Management from $182.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Ares Management from $193.00 to $203.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $177.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 107,500 shares of Ares Management stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.34, for a total transaction of $17,344,050.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,400,000 shares in the company, valued at $225,876,000. The trade was a 7.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Bennett Rosenthal sold 85,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.79, for a total transaction of $14,347,150.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 873,145 shares of company stock worth $146,204,353. 0.52% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Ares Management Stock Up 3.3%

Shares of ARES stock traded up $5.96 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $188.79. The company had a trading volume of 1,381,563 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,361,109. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $174.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $166.55. Ares Management Corporation has a 12 month low of $110.63 and a 12 month high of $200.49. The company has a market cap of $61.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 109.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.07.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The asset manager reported $1.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.15 by ($0.12). Ares Management had a return on equity of 16.49% and a net margin of 9.47%. The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.99 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Ares Management Corporation will post 5.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Management Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.12 per share. This represents a $4.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 16th. Ares Management's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 258.96%.

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.