Ares Management Corporation · ARES · FY2026 Q2 · Calendar Q3 2026

ARES Q2: Record fundraising supports continued fee-related growth

The quarter supports a constructive earnings-growth case: record fundraising, expanding fee-related earnings and durable institutional demand improve the setup for future fee-paying AUM growth. The thesis still depends on deployment, wealth-channel stabilization and successful integration of acquisitions.

Reported Before market openNYSEFinancial Services $40.96B market cap
100quality score

Earnings scorecard

Reported versus consensus
Reported EPS $1.29 Consensus $1.28
EPS surprise +0.8% Reported versus consensus
Reported revenue $1.43B Consensus $1.24B
Revenue surprise +15.6% Reported versus consensus

Market reaction

prior-close to event-session close
Stock move +3.2% Event window
SPY move +0.7% Same window
Abnormal move +2.5% Stock minus SPY
Volume 2.1× Versus trailing sessions
Subsequent drift +11.3% Up to 20 sessions
ARESSPY benchmark

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What changed

Compared with the prior quarter, fundraising increased from a record $30 billion to $36 billion, AUM reached $671 billion, and management highlighted accelerating institutional private-credit demand alongside stabilized wealth outflows. New product launches and acquisitions broadened the platform, while AI and technology investment became a more explicit efficiency priority.

Guidance delta

Management maintained its outlook and targeted the upper end of the 0–150 basis-point margin-expansion range.

Key takeaways

  • Management reported record Q2 fundraising of $36 billion and $170 billion of dry powder.
  • Fee-related earnings rose 20%, while fee-paying AUM in the insurance franchise grew 54% year over year.
  • Institutional private-credit demand accelerated and wealth-channel outflows stabilized, but deployment and redemption trends remain important variables.

Management priorities

  • Scale private-credit, infrastructure, insurance and wealth-management products.
  • Advance Evergreen Core, European direct lending, Japan Industrial Development and infrastructure-debt funds.
  • Use acquisitions, technology and AI integration to expand capabilities and improve efficiency.

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Earnings History

Estimate Beat Miss Match
ARES EPS earnings history estimate and actual scatter chart 9 reported fiscal quarters and 2 future estimate-only quarters. Q4 '23 estimate $1.10 Q4 '23 actual $1.21, beat Q1 '24 estimate $0.92 Q1 '24 actual $0.80, miss Q2 '24 estimate $0.98 Q2 '24 actual $0.99, match Q3 '24 estimate $0.94 Q3 '24 actual $0.95, beat Q2 '25 estimate $1.08 Q2 '25 actual $1.03, miss Q3 '25 estimate $1.15 Q3 '25 actual $1.19, beat Q4 '25 estimate $1.69 Q4 '25 actual $1.45, miss Q1 '26 estimate $1.33 Q1 '26 actual $1.24, miss Q2 '26 estimate $1.28 Q2 '26 actual $1.29, match Q3 '26 estimate $1.31 Q4 '26 estimate $2.00
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Analyst Consensus ?

ConsensusBuy22 ratings
Bullish1881.8%
Neutral418.2%
Bearish00.0%

Analyst 52W Price Targets

$124.72Previous close
$62Low
$159.6Average
$210High

Latest persisted target per named analyst; persisted previous close from FN2's market snapshot as of Sep 23, 2026. Not an FN2 forecast.

Firm-level rating actions

FMP grade actions identify the grading firm, not a named analyst.

FirmRatingPrior ratingActionDate
Oppenheimer Outperform OutperformMaintainAug 27, 2026
TD Cowen Buy BuyMaintainAug 3, 2026
RBC Capital Outperform OutperformMaintainAug 3, 2026
JP Morgan Overweight OverweightMaintainAug 3, 2026
BMO Capital Market Perform Market PerformMaintainAug 3, 2026
Show 17 more rating actions

Named analyst price targets

Upside is calculated against the persisted previous close $124.72. FMP does not supply a rating on these named-analyst rows.

FirmAnalyst52W targetPrice when postedUpsideDate
RBC CapitalBart Dziarski$168$134.39 +34.7%Aug 3, 2026
Deutsche BankAnalyst unavailable$144$135.01 +15.5%Aug 3, 2026
OppenheimerAnalyst unavailable$151$133.2 +21.1%Aug 3, 2026
BMO CapitalBrennan Hawken$134$128.09 +7.4%Aug 3, 2026
Morgan StanleyAnalyst unavailable$160$121.14 +28.3%Jul 21, 2026
See 48 more

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Company context

Snapshot as of publication

Ares Management Corporation functions as an investment firm specializing in alternative assets, with operations spanning the United States, Europe, and Asia. Its Tradable Credit division oversees diverse investment vehicles, including pooled funds and separately managed accounts for institutional investors, alongside publicly traded products and sub-advised funds aimed at retail investors, all within the tradable and non-investment grade corporate credit markets. The Direct Lending segment delivers financial solutions to small and medium-sized businesses.…

Historical context

All ARES earnings

Financial Services peers this season

Latest reports in the same sector

Latest beats and misses

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Sources

  1. Earnings call transcript and parsed analysis · 2026-07-31T19:08:03.618314+00:00
  2. FN2 earnings calendar · 2026-09-05T01:23:14.965082+00:00
  3. Polygon adjusted daily market bars · 2026-09-23T06:10:55.039911+00:00
  4. Financial Modeling Prep analyst price-target consensus and quote snapshot · 2026-09-23T06:10:55.036811+00:00

Methodology

Reported and consensus figures come from FN2's earnings event records. Market reaction and volume are calculated from daily adjusted bars around the event; abnormal move subtracts the SPY move over the same window.

Analyst target low, average, and high values are derived at request time from each named analyst's latest persisted FMP target. The current-price marker comes from FN2's persisted market snapshot. They are sell-side estimates, not an FN2 valuation or recommendation.

Transcript intelligence is a structured synthesis of the current and prior earnings-call analyses. Missing values stay missing and are never estimated.

By FN2 Research · Updated · As of 2026-09-23. For educational purposes only; not investment advice.