Wells Fargo & Company Cuts Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) Price Target to $207.00

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) had its target price reduced by equities researchers at Wells Fargo & Company from $212.00 to $207.00 in a research report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the asset manager’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s target price indicates a potential upside of 12.26% from the stock’s current price.

ARES has been the topic of several other research reports. UBS Group upped their price objective on Ares Management from $158.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Ares Management from $136.00 to $162.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ares Management from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Ares Management from $155.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Ares Management from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $171.92.

Ares Management Stock Performance

Ares Management stock opened at $184.40 on Tuesday. Ares Management has a 52 week low of $112.83 and a 52 week high of $185.49. 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 $57.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 84.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.18. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $176.13 and a 200-day moving average of $159.42.

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 1st. The asset manager reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 prior year, the firm posted $0.83 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Ares Management will post 4.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 1,259,162 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $223,916,778.46. This represents a 8.42 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Michael J. Arougheti sold 20,096 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.44, for a total transaction of $3,364,874.24. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 229,904 shares in the company, valued at $38,495,125.76. This represents a 8.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 574,167 shares of company stock valued at $99,996,647 over the last 90 days. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in Ares Management by 58.5% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,058,394 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $674,183,000 after acquiring an additional 1,867,933 shares during the last quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Ares Management during the second quarter valued at approximately $209,884,000. Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ares Management by 722.6% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,738,148 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $231,660,000 after buying an additional 1,526,856 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in 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. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 678,549 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.