Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) announced its earnings results on Wednesday. The asset manager reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by ($0.12), Zacks reports. Ares Management had a return on equity of 19.89% and a net margin of 12.51%.

Ares Management Stock Performance

NYSE ARES traded down $7.12 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $188.24. The stock had a trading volume of 658,862 shares, compared to its average volume of 993,681. Ares Management has a 52-week low of $124.11 and a 52-week high of $200.49. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $182.78 and a 200 day moving average of $164.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05. The stock has a market cap of $58.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 86.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider R. Kipp Deveer sold 115,838 shares of Ares Management stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.83, for a total transaction of $20,599,471.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,259,162 shares in the company, valued at approximately $223,916,778.46. This trade represents a 8.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ryan Berry sold 14,357 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.16, for a total value of $2,586,557.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 233,214 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,015,834.24. The trade was a 5.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 555,838 shares of company stock valued at $96,785,773. 41.89% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on ARES. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $212.00 to $207.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Ares Management from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $166.00 to $202.00 in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Ares Management from $136.00 to $162.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. StockNews.com downgraded Ares Management from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Ares Management from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ares Management currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $176.08.

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.