Graham Capital Management L.P. Invests $480,000 in Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES)

Graham Capital Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 2,714 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $480,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in shares of Ares Management by 42.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 435,103 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $67,807,000 after buying an additional 129,611 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 679,462 shares during the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Management in the fourth quarter worth about $211,000. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ares Management by 8.8% in the fourth quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,400 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $248,000 after buying an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Ares Management by 80.2% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,928 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $872,000 after buying an additional 2,193 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 50.03% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Bank of America lowered their target price on Ares Management from $221.00 to $201.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Ares Management from $156.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Oppenheimer downgraded Ares Management from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday. JMP Securities increased their price target on Ares Management from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Citizens Jmp upgraded Ares Management from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $165.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $174.50.

Ares Management Price Performance

Shares of Ares Management stock traded up $1.63 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $170.33. 1,700,541 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,425,731. The business has a 50-day moving average of $148.51 and a 200 day moving average of $167.60. Ares Management Co. has a fifty-two week low of $110.63 and a fifty-two week high of $200.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $55.63 billion, a PE ratio of 83.91, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The asset manager reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.15. Ares Management had a return on equity of 16.64% and a net margin of 11.35%. The firm had revenue of $951.96 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $914.00 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.80 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Ares Management Co. will post 5.28 EPS for the current year.

Ares Management Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th will be issued a $1.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. This represents a $4.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.63%. Ares Management's dividend payout ratio is presently 263.53%.

Insider Activity at Ares Management

In other Ares Management news, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 110,845 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.17, for a total transaction of $16,978,128.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,400,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $214,438,000. This trade represents a 7.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Bennett Rosenthal sold 69,809 shares of Ares Management stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.01, for a total value of $11,239,947.09. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 30,191 shares in the company, valued at $4,861,052.91. This represents a 69.81% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 250,180 shares of company stock valued at $39,411,066. 36.86% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.