Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) Short Interest Up 7.5% in December

Ares Management Co. (NYSE:ARES) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,580,000 shares, a growth of 7.5% from the November 30th total of 3,330,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,280,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.8 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ARES has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Ares Management from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $166.00 to $202.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com raised shares of Ares Management from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Ares Management from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Ares Management from $136.00 to $162.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Ares Management from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $172.33.

Ares Management Stock Down 1.1 %

ARES stock opened at $177.03 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $173.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is $156.42. Ares Management has a twelve month low of $112.83 and a twelve month high of $185.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a market cap of $55.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 81.58, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.19.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 1st. The asset manager reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $833.58 million. Ares Management had a net margin of 12.51% and a return on equity of 19.89%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.83 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Ares Management will post 4.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Management Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a dividend of $0.93 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.10%. Ares Management’s dividend payout ratio is presently 171.43%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Ryan Berry sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.07, for a total transaction of $3,201,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 344,202 shares in the company, valued at $55,096,414.14. This trade represents a 5.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider R. Kipp Deveer sold 115,838 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.83, for a total value of $20,599,471.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 1,259,162 shares in the company, valued at $223,916,778.46. This represents a 8.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 634,167 shares of company stock valued at $109,917,647 in the last three months. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ARES. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of Ares Management by 58.5% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,058,394 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $674,183,000 after acquiring an additional 1,867,933 shares during the last quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Ares Management in the 2nd quarter valued at $209,884,000. Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in Ares Management by 722.6% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,738,148 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $231,660,000 after purchasing an additional 1,526,856 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Ares Management by 9.0% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,244,179 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,284,773,000 after purchasing an additional 679,462 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Ares Management by 31.3% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,849,737 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $444,103,000 after purchasing an additional 678,549 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 50.03% of the company’s stock.

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.