Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund Sells 2,700 Shares of Ares Management Corporation $ARES

Key Points

• Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund reduced its stake in Ares Management Corporation by 7.6%, selling 2,700 shares to hold a total of 32,700 shares valued at approximately $4.79 million.
• CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 107,500 shares of Ares Management for $17.34 million, reducing his ownership by 7.13%, while other executives also engaged in significant share sales recently.
• Ares Management reported mixed quarterly earnings, with earnings per share of $1.03, missing expectations, but revenue of $1.35 billion exceeded analyst forecasts, leading to an average price target increase among several analysts.

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund decreased its holdings in shares of Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES - Free Report) by 7.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 32,700 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 2,700 shares during the period. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund's holdings in Ares Management were worth $4,794,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ARES. Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ares Management by 394.8% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 766,267 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $135,652,000 after buying an additional 611,414 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Ares Management by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,189,991 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $2,813,445,000 after buying an additional 382,273 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC boosted its holdings in Ares Management by 443.8% in the 4th quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 383,209 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $67,839,000 after buying an additional 312,742 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in Ares Management by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 3,727,597 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $659,896,000 after buying an additional 302,303 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Ares Management by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 10,753,779 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $1,903,741,000 after buying an additional 223,919 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 50.03% of the company's stock.

Ares Management Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ARES traded down $0.9160 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $178.0140. 180,721 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,626,982. The company's 50-day moving average is $179.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $166.32. 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 company has a market capitalization of $58.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 102.94, a PEG ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.40. Ares Management Corporation has a 1 year low of $110.63 and a 1 year high of $200.49.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES - Get Free Report) last announced 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 net margin of 9.47% and a return on equity of 15.81%. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.99 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Ares Management Corporation will post 5.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Management Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 16th will be given a $1.12 dividend. This represents a $4.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 16th. Ares Management's dividend payout ratio is 258.96%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 136,516 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.74, for a total value of $24,946,933.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 311,728 shares of the company's stock, valued at $56,965,174.72. This represents a 30.46% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Bennett Rosenthal sold 85,000 shares of the 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. Insiders have sold 458,917 shares of company stock valued at $81,863,970 in the last ninety days. 36.86% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on ARES shares. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Ares Management from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Cfra Research raised shares of Ares Management to a "moderate buy" rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Wolfe Research set a $193.00 price objective on shares of Ares Management and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. JMP Securities increased their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $182.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $180.06.

Ares Management Company 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.