Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Trims Stake in Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES - Free Report) by 11.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 108,317 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 14,354 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC's holdings in Ares Management were worth $15,880,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Ares Management by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,807,718 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $3,329,530,000 after acquiring an additional 907,757 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its stake in Ares Management by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 10,753,779 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $1,903,741,000 after acquiring an additional 223,919 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Ares Management by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,277,879 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $1,465,433,000 after acquiring an additional 33,700 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in Ares Management by 12.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,109,070 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $1,258,519,000 after acquiring an additional 807,361 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in Ares Management by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,126,442 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $907,534,000 after acquiring an additional 66,671 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 50.03% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ares Management news, Chairman Bennett Rosenthal sold 40,000 shares of Ares Management stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.37, for a total transaction of $6,774,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 85,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,396,450. The trade was a 32.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider David B. Kaplan sold 33,145 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.12, for a total value of $5,472,902.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 983,990 shares of company stock valued at $163,182,482 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 36.86% of the company's stock.

Ares Management Stock Down 0.8%

ARES traded down $1.42 on Friday, hitting $165.93. 2,491,584 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,432,179. Ares Management Corporation has a twelve month low of $110.63 and a twelve month high of $200.49. The company has a market cap of $54.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 97.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $160.19 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $166.91.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The asset manager reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $951.96 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $914.00 million. Ares Management had a return on equity of 16.29% and a net margin of 9.73%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.80 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Ares Management Corporation will post 5.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Management Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 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 2.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. Ares Management's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 263.53%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on ARES shares. Citizens Jmp raised Ares Management from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $165.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Wolfe Research set a $193.00 price objective on Ares Management and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on Ares Management from $216.00 to $161.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Ares Management from $182.00 to $189.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Ares Management from $197.00 to $152.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $174.94.

Ares Management Profile

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.