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Corporate events
Filed after the FY2026 Q1 call day (May 1, 2026) through the next call day (Jul 31, 2026)From SEC 8-K filings
No 8-K events recorded for this window.
Quarter in detail
· FY2026 Q1
Macro Signals
→Enterprise Spending↑AI & Tech→Credit
Ares started fiscal 2026 with record fundraising momentum and management fees growing 22% on 40.8% revenue growth. After-tax realized income per share grew 14%, and both GAAP EPS and operating income spreads were significantly positive, confirming operating leverage. Management reiterated long-term targets of 16-20% FRE CAGR, 20-25% realized income CAGR, and 20% dividend growth. The U.S. direct lending market slowed, but the wealth channel continued diversifying beyond credit into digital infrastructure and energy.
Key Themes7
positive📊 company
Record Fundraising And AUM Growth
Raised 30 billion dollars of gross capital in Q1, the highest ever first quarter, up 46% YOY. AUM increased 18% to 644 billion dollars; FPAUM increased 19% to 400 billion dollars. Available capital expanded to over 158 billion dollars.
Revenue GrowthCompetitive Dynamics
positive📊 company
Management Fee Milestone And FRE Growth
Quarterly management fees exceeded 1 billion dollars for the first time, increasing 22% YOY. FRE grew 26% to 454 million dollars with margin expanding 90 basis points to 42.4%.
Revenue GrowthMargin
positive📊 company
Credit Portfolio Quality And Software Assessment
Independent management consulting review found 86% of software-oriented portfolio at low risk of AI disruption, 13% medium, and 1% high. Non-accrual ratios well below historical norms with continued near 10% EBITDA growth across direct lending portfolios.
CreditCloud & AI
mixed📊 company
U.S. Direct Lending Market Slowdown
Industry-wide deal count and middle market M&A declined by 41% in Q1 2026 versus Q1 2025 due to impacts from the Iran war and changing inflation and rate expectations. However, forward pipeline increased to a new record level with pickup in activity over past several weeks.
DemandMacroeconomic
positive📊 company
Wealth Channel Diversification Beyond Credit
Wealth AUM increased 54% YOY to 68 billion dollars. Non-credit products accelerating: core infrastructure fund raised 1 billion dollars in equity subscriptions, two non-traded REITs saw over 640 million dollars of inflows, and European direct lending wealth products had equity flows of nearly 1.2 billion dollars.
DemandProduct Launch
positive📊 company
Digital Infrastructure And Energy Expansion
Launching global data center equity fund with significant first close expected this summer. X-energy completed its IPO raising over 1 billion dollars at a 20% premium; Ares cost basis of a little over 100 million dollars with current fair value net of employee compensation close to 700 million dollars.
Capex InvestmentCloud & AI
positive🏢 sector
Institutional Fundraising Resilience
Institutional investors consolidating relationships with scaled platforms. ASOF III raised over 8.3 billion dollars of equity commitments exceeding its target and prior vintage. Alternative Credit third vintage already meaningfully oversubscribed and expected to close at hard cap in Q2.
Is there anything you can share around expectations for the European-style realization revenues for the year, G&A growth, and any help with expectations for FRPR
FY2026 Q1 selectedReported GAAP figures from SEC filings
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Quarter
Revenue
Rev YoY
EPS
EPS YoY
Net margin
FY2024 Q4
$1.26B
+19.5%
$0.68
-20.9%
14.1%
FY2025 Q1
$1.09B
+53.9%
$0.05
-84.5%
4.3%
FY2025 Q2
$1.35B
+71.2%
$0.46
+2.2%
10.2%
FY2025 Q3
$1.66B
+46.7%
$1.15
+109.1%
17.4%
FY2025 Q4
$1.77B
+40.3%
$0.13
-80.9%
3.1%
FY2026 Q1Selected
$1.53B
+40.8%
$0.64
+1112.1%
9.3%
FY2026 Q2
$1.43B
+5.8%
$0.49
+6.5%
10.5%
As stated by management
Management’s own words, often on a non-GAAP, constant-currency, or adjusted basis — so these can differ from the GAAP figures above (e.g. constant-currency revenue growth excludes currency swings).
EPS
“after-tax realized income per share was 1.24 dollars, up 14% compared to the prior-year period”
On the realization side, Q1 came out a little lighter than many of us anticipated. It sounds like there is momentum not only for you but the industry at large
Wanted to ask about the secondaries market opportunity. It sounds like we are seeing an acceleration this year versus last, and you have secondaries across four asset classes, so it is pretty built...
Could you go into a bit more detail on your data center business? Do you have data center AUM outside the Digital Infrastructure business? And what do you think the total market size could be for d...
I wanted to follow up on your comments around the strength in institutional market demand. Is there any differentiation among that subset—Middle East or sovereign wealth—given global dynamics, or i...
Analyst challenge ratePercentage of questions scored as challenging — where the analyst pushed back, pressed for specifics, or questioned management's assumptions. · all analyzed quarters
7%
Share price · trailing year
daily closes, last 12 months — not scoped to the selected quarter · dots mark earnings calls, colored by that quarter’s score
Sources.Tellvest earnings-call sentiment score for Ares Management Corporation (ARES), FY2026 Q1: 9/10. Scores: Ares Management Corporation’s public earnings-call transcripts and SEC-reported results — the base band is anchored to reported GAAP revenue growth; transcript, EPS and guidance adjustments are applied separately (documented exceptions apply to a few issuers). Price: ARES daily closing prices for the trailing year; dots mark earnings calls, colored by that quarter’s score; the newest quarter’s score is part of Tellvest Pro. How to read a company earnings-call score.
Top analysts & firms
All analyzed callsNot limited to the selected quarter · analysts and firms with 2 or more questions
What does “challenging” mean?
Percentage of questions scored as challenging — where the analyst pushed back, pressed for specifics, or questioned management's assumptions.
Most active analysts
Analyst
Firm
Questions · challengingPercentage of questions scored as challenging — where the analyst pushed back, pressed for specifics, or questioned management's assumptions.
What ARES and other companies said about each other on FY2026 Q1 earnings calls — extracted verbatim from public transcripts. Mentions from the newest quarter are a Pro feature.
“The recently announced acquisition of Whitestone REIT by Ares Management, an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $1.7 billion is the latest evidence of how aggressively private capital is pursuing our sector”
Ares Management's ~$1.7B acquisition of Whitestone REIT is a signal on Ares' private-capital deployment into open-air grocery-anchored retail.
GAAP revenue YoY +40.8% → base 8. The base score is anchored to the GAAP revenue YoY band before transcript, EPS, and guidance adjustments.
▸How this score was built
Base8Base 8GAAP revenue YoY +40.8% → base 8. The base score is anchored to the GAAP revenue YoY band before transcript, EPS, and guidance adjustments.+Transcript0Transcript 0GAAP revenue includes management fees and performance income. Alt asset managers are not in the Sector Rules Table; no structural adjustment applied. GAAP revenue growth of 40.83% is driven partly by performance income timing but management fees alone grew 22%, also base 8 territory.+EPS+1EPS +1Vendor OI cross-check (oi_yoy +390.01%, spread +349.18 percentage points) inadmissible: ARES files no us-gaap OperatingIncomeLoss concept (no-oi-subtotal.ts), so operating_income is a vendor reconstruction. Dropped as anchor. The GAAP EPS-vs-revenue spread is directionally positive (EPS +1112.12% vs rev +40.83%) but distorted on both ends, the prior-year GAAP EPS base was near-zero ($0.05 in FY2025-Q1) and GAAP revenue is inflated by lumpy performance/investment income, so it is not a clean standalone anchor for an asset manager. +1 (operating leverage) instead rests on a management-stated operating metric: CFO Jarrod Phillips stated fee-related earnings (FRE, the asset manager's operating-profit line) were $454M, up 26% YoY, with FRE margin expanding 90bps YoY to 42.4%, against management fees +22%, the operating-profit line grew faster than fee revenue with margin expansion, i.e. unambiguous positive operating leverage. Corroborated by realized income +24% ($503M) and after-tax realized income per share +14% ($1.24). (anchored on the management-stated FRE figure). +1 stands, final 9.+Guidance0Guidance 0Reiterated long-term growth targets: 16-20% FRE CAGR, 20-25% realized income CAGR, 20% dividend growth. FRE margin expansion guidance reiterated at upper end of 0-150bps annual target. $125B 2028 fundraising target unchanged. No forward metric raised or lowered.=Final9
How this score was built
Base8Base 8GAAP revenue YoY +40.8% → base 8. The base score is anchored to the GAAP revenue YoY band before transcript, EPS, and guidance adjustments.+Transcript0Transcript 0GAAP revenue includes management fees and performance income. Alt asset managers are not in the Sector Rules Table; no structural adjustment applied. GAAP revenue growth of 40.83% is driven partly by performance income timing but management fees alone grew 22%, also base 8 territory.+
Questions · challengingPercentage of questions scored as challenging — where the analyst pushed back, pressed for specifics, or questioned management's assumptions.
“the company continued to execute its strategy, including receiving support from strategic investors like Amazon.”
Amazon is cited as a strategic investor backing X-energy, underscoring Amazon's continued financial support of small modular nuclear technology.
X-energynot trackedFY2026 Q1Investment
“before turning the call over to Jarrod, I wanted to highlight the successful IPO last week of X-energy, which is a small modular nuclear reactor company.”
Ares highlighted its portfolio company X-energy's oversubscribed IPO, marking a large valuation gain on Ares's balance-sheet investment in the nuclear developer.
EPS+1
EPS +1Vendor OI cross-check (oi_yoy +390.01%, spread +349.18 percentage points) inadmissible: ARES files no us-gaap OperatingIncomeLoss concept (no-oi-subtotal.ts), so operating_income is a vendor reconstruction. Dropped as anchor. The GAAP EPS-vs-revenue spread is directionally positive (EPS +1112.12% vs rev +40.83%) but distorted on both ends, the prior-year GAAP EPS base was near-zero ($0.05 in FY2025-Q1) and GAAP revenue is inflated by lumpy performance/investment income, so it is not a clean standalone anchor for an asset manager. +1 (operating leverage) instead rests on a management-stated operating metric: CFO Jarrod Phillips stated fee-related earnings (FRE, the asset manager's operating-profit line) were $454M, up 26% YoY, with FRE margin expanding 90bps YoY to 42.4%, against management fees +22%, the operating-profit line grew faster than fee revenue with margin expansion, i.e. unambiguous positive operating leverage. Corroborated by realized income +24% ($503M) and after-tax realized income per share +14% ($1.24). (anchored on the management-stated FRE figure). +1 stands, final 9.
+
Guidance0Guidance 0Reiterated long-term growth targets: 16-20% FRE CAGR, 20-25% realized income CAGR, 20% dividend growth. FRE margin expansion guidance reiterated at upper end of 0-150bps annual target. $125B 2028 fundraising target unchanged. No forward metric raised or lowered.
Revenue rose 27% year over year to $6.7 billion and as-adjusted earnings per share of $12.53 was 11% higher, as $130 billion of net inflows drove 8% organic base fee growth, BlackRock's seventh consecutive quarter at or above 5%
Northern Trust extended its positive operating leverage streak to seven consecutive quarters, posting record NII of $662 million, up 15% year-over-year, and EPS of $2.71, up 43%
Record quarterly revenue of $3.8 billion grew 16% excluding notable items with fee revenue surging 15% and NII breaking out at 17% growth, as State Street achieved its ninth straight quarter of operating leverage