Ares Management Stock (ARES): Fees, FRE and Dividend, Q2 2026

What the quote pages leave out

ARES is the common stock of the manager. ARCC, ASIF, AREIT and AIREIT are separate vehicles with their own filings; they pay Ares fees. Owning ARES does not give you any of them, and owning one of them does not make you an Ares shareholder. This page reads the manager's own filings (the 2025 10-K, the Q2 2026 10-Q and the earnings 8-Ks) next to the Q2 2026 10-Qs of the three funds our readers ask about most, so a number that Ares reports about a fund can be set beside the number the fund reports about itself. The funds have their own pages: ARCC, ASIF, AREIT and AIREIT.

Three terms matter for everything below. Fee related earnings (FRE) are management fees, fee related performance revenues and other fees, less the compensation and costs that go with them. Realized income adds realized performance income and realized investment income and subtracts net interest; Ares reports it, and its per-share form after corporate taxes, as non-GAAP measures. Fee-paying AUM is the part of AUM that currently pays a fee. The Q2 earnings release and presentation are the source of all three (Form 8-K Exhibits 99.1 and 99.2, accession 0001628280-26-051191).

Ares in five quarters

All amounts are in $ million except per-share figures, from the “RI and Other Measures Financial Summary” slide of each quarter's earnings presentation (the Q2 2025 column is the prior-year column of the Q2 2026 slide). Management fees include Part I fees. The dividend column is the dividend Ares declared with that quarter's results; it is paid in the following quarter.

Three patterns show in the rows. Management fees went up every quarter, from $900.3 million to $1,030.0 million, and the margin on fee related earnings stayed between 41.2% and 42.5%. Fee related performance revenues did not: $16.7 million, $85.4 million, $171.2 million, $19.6 million, $40.5 million. The 10-K says realized incentive fees are “generally higher during the second half of the year,” because many measurement periods end on December 31, which is why Q4 2025 looks the way it does. And realized net performance income, which sits below fee related earnings, ranged from $9.3 million to $102.2 million.

The GAAP lines are far lower than the realized measures. GAAP net income attributable to Ares was $150.6 million in Q2 2026 ($0.49 per Class A share) against realized income of $521.5 million. The reconciliation in the earnings presentation shows part of the gap: realized income adds back equity compensation expense of $151.1 million for the quarter ($318.4 million for the half), plus amortization of intangibles and acquisition-related items, and leaves out unrealized performance income. GAAP income before taxes was $385.9 million. Neither set of figures is wrong; they answer different questions, and the dividend is set from the realized side, specifically fee related earnings, as the next section shows.

AUM is up 17% in twelve months (17.3%, our arithmetic), fee-paying AUM up 17% and perpetual capital up 34%, according to the slides. Of the $671.3 billion, 61.1% pays fees (our arithmetic). The company also shows $92.6 billion of AUM not yet paying fees that is available for future deployment and $4.1 billion of development assets not yet stabilized, which it says “could collectively generate approximately $828.2 million in potential incremental annual management fees” if invested and paid on an annual basis, with no assurance that it will be. That is management's assumption, not a forecast we can check; the footnote adds that it does not reflect reductions in fees from some existing funds, which may be material.

The dividend: set from fee related earnings, paid above realized income per share

Ares' 10-K describes the policy in one sentence: “Our dividend policy contemplates a steady quarterly dividend for each calendar year that will be based on fee related earnings after an allocation of current taxes paid.” The next sentences say the amount is at the sole discretion of the board, is reassessed each year “based on the level and growth of our fee related earnings after an allocation of current taxes paid,” and may be changed at any time. This differs from managers that pay a share of distributable earnings each quarter: Ares sets a flat amount for the year and resets it as fee earnings grow. Our pages on Blackstone, KKR, Apollo and Blue Owl describe theirs.

The filings do not give fee related earnings per share, so whether the dividend is covered by fee related earnings cannot be computed from them. What can be set beside the dividend is what Ares does report per share:

Over the last four quarters (Q3 2025 to Q2 2026) Ares paid $4.94 a share and earned $5.17 of after-tax realized income (95.6%, our arithmetic), because the $1.45 of Q4 2025 included $102.2 million of realized net performance income. In the two quarters since the dividend went to $1.35, it has been above the quarter's after-tax realized income per share both times, and the 10-Q's earnings-per-share note shows “dividends in excess of earnings” of $0.86 per share in Q2 and $1.75 for the half on the GAAP measure. In cash terms, the Company paid $1,036.5 million of dividends and distributions in the first half (common, preferred and distributions to holders of Ares Operating Group units) against $920.0 million of after-tax realized income, 112.7% (our arithmetic). A dividend that tracks fee related earnings can exceed after-tax realized income in a quarter with little performance income and fall below it in one with a lot; the sums above are the evidence of both.

Other items that bear on the per-share figures: Ares did not repurchase any shares in the first half of 2026 under its $750.0 million program, which runs to March 2027. After-tax realized income per share is computed on 239.6 million shares in Q2, which includes the dilutive effect of 9.78 million shares for the 6.75% Series B mandatory convertible preferred stock, whose $0.84375 quarterly dividend costs $25.3 million a quarter; 30,000,000 preferred shares were outstanding on February 19, 2026. Holders of Ares Operating Group units, 103.6 million exchangeable shares on a weighted basis in Q2, receive distributions from the operating group alongside the common stock. The next dividend will be declared with the Q3 results, which are not filed as of October 15, 2026. Ares' Q3 2025 release was filed on November 3, 2025 (accession 0001628280-25-047895). This page does not use a share price, so it gives no yield.

Where the fees come from: the rate card for ARCC, ASIF and the non-traded REITs

Management fees are 94% from perpetual capital or long-dated funds, and Ares' perpetual capital includes publicly traded funds, perpetual wealth funds, private commingled funds and managed accounts. The 10-K lists the base fee and the performance fee for the main ones. The table sets what the adviser earns on a non-traded fund next to what the same adviser earns on its listed BDC.

The same 10-K shows the drawdown-fund ranges: 0.25% to 1.00% for liquid credit, 0.75% to 1.50% for U.S. and European direct lending, 0.45% to 1.50% for real estate, and 1.50% of commitments for corporate private equity during the investment period. The base fees on the perpetual wealth vehicles are inside those ranges, so a holder of ASIF pays the adviser a rate in the upper half of Ares' direct lending range, charged on NAV, plus the Part I fee, before the fund's own expenses and any distribution fees.

What the 10-Q says about this quarter's change in fees is specific. In the Credit Group, base management fees from ASIF, the European direct lending fund and CADC added $21.0 million against Q2 2025 and Part I fees from ASIF and the European direct lending fund added $21.8 million; across the firm, Part I fees were up $25.9 million, “primarily attributable to ASIF,” the European direct lending fund and the core infrastructure fund. In Real Assets, base fees from the core infrastructure fund and both non-traded REITs, “driven by additional capital raised,” added $17.4 million. Fees from ARCC added $5.6 million because of fundraising. The effective management fee rate fell to 0.97% from 1.00% because of growth in liquid credit, which carries a rate under 0.50%.

The 10-Q also shows the cost of selling the wealth funds. Supplemental distribution fees, which Ares pays, were $19.0 million in G&A in Q2 2026 against $19.3 million a year earlier, and the 10-Q says Credit's decrease of $7.7 million was “primarily driven by lower sales in ASIF” and the European direct lending fund. Higher “facilitation fees from the 1031 exchange program” of the non-traded REITs lifted other fees in the Operations Management Group. The perpetual wealth vehicles' advisory agreements, the 10-K adds, “have one year terms,” renewed each year.

ARCC: the deferred fee, the 7% test and the fee suit

The 10-K says ARCC's fees are “a significant percentage” of Ares' management fees and does not give the amount. The 10-Q's liquidity section is where the mechanism shows. ARCC's Part I fee is paid to Ares in cash only if, over the latest four quarters, ARCC's distributions plus the change in its net assets are at least 7.0% of its net assets at the start of the period. When the test is missed, Ares may still recognize the fee as revenue, it is “not reversible” once earned, and the cash is deferred and carried forward. For Q2 2026 the 10-Q says collection of the Part I fees earned in the three months ended June 30 “will be deferred.” It puts the temporary effect on Ares' liquidity at $33.8 million, because 60% of the fee is paid to certain professionals as compensation and is not paid until Ares receives the cash, so the deferral touches about 40% of the fee. That implies a Q2 ARCC Part I fee of about $84.5 million (our arithmetic: $33.8 million divided by 40%), in line with the $84 million that our ARCC page reports from ARCC's own 10-Q. Ares adds that no other fund from which it earns Part I fees has a deferral provision, so none of the others can be deferred.

Two other facts sit in the same filing. A derivative action filed May 26, 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York alleges that ARCC's adviser, an indirect Ares subsidiary, received excessive advisory fees in violation of Section 36(b) of the Investment Company Act; it seeks disgorgement of fees paid, injunctive relief and rescission of the advisory agreement. Ares says the case is in its preliminary stages, that it disputes the allegations and that it cannot estimate a loss. Our ARCC page covers a second complaint filed in August 2026. And the 10-K notes ARCC's advisory agreement may be terminated by ARCC's board or a majority of its shareholders, or by the adviser, “without penalty upon 60 days' written notice.” These are risks to a fee stream, not findings; the 10-Q reports no ruling.

Credit, real assets, secondaries: the split behind the AUM

The segment table is from the Q2 2026 presentation. Fee related earnings of $491.1 million are the sum of five segments' FRE of $728.5 million less $237.4 million of costs the Operations Management Group carries and does not allocate (our arithmetic).

Credit supplies 68.3% of management fees and 68.4% of segment FRE (our arithmetic). Inside it, U.S. direct lending is $196.7 billion of AUM (29.3% of the firm total, our arithmetic), which Ares says includes $36.6 billion for ARCC, $12.5 billion for the vehicles managed by ARCC's Ivy Hill subsidiary, $3.2 billion for ADLP (the joint venture through which ASIF co-invests with a North American pension fund) and $3.7 billion for SDLP; European direct lending is $89.0 billion, liquid credit $62.0 billion, alternative credit $59.1 billion and opportunistic credit $21.4 billion. Real estate is $121.3 billion, 18.1% of the firm's AUM (our arithmetic), and infrastructure $29.9 billion. In Secondaries, private equity secondaries is $24.2 billion and real estate secondaries $7.8 billion, and APMF, a registered closed-end fund, shows $5.87 billion of AUM and a net return of 6.9% for the quarter (see our APMF page). The open-ended core infrastructure fund, a BDC that Ares counts among its perpetual wealth funds, shows $5.79 billion (our page).

Realized income by segment was $543.8 million for Credit, $144.4 million for Real Assets, $59.7 million for Secondaries and $12.1 million for Private Equity. Credit's $47.4 million of realized net performance income in Q2 came from ACE V, a European direct lending fund past its investment period. Gross capital deployed in the quarter was $23.7 billion in Credit (of which $12.4 billion U.S. direct lending), $7.6 billion in Real Assets and $1.9 billion in Secondaries. Ares also reports $6.96 billion of distributions and $2.03 billion of redemptions out of AUM in Q2, and $7.44 billion of redemptions over the last twelve months; the next section puts them in context.

Perpetual capital: what the 84% and the 94% mean

Ares reports that at June 30, 2026, 84% of AUM was perpetual capital or long-dated funds and 94% of management fees came from them. The first figure has been 82% to 87% over five quarters and the second 91% to 94%. The definition matters more than the number. The 10-K says “perpetual capital may be withdrawn by investors under certain conditions,” including by redeeming or by terminating the management agreement, which “in certain cases may be terminated on 30 days' prior written notice.” Perpetual capital here means no fixed end date; it does not mean the money cannot leave.

The same 10-K has a risk factor titled by its first sentence: Ares is “vulnerable to an increased number of investors seeking to participate in share redemption programs or tender offers” of its perpetual wealth vehicles. It says redemptions in excess of inflows or tender participation “could lead to a decline in the management fees and incentive fees we receive,” that the non-traded REITs' redemptions are capped at a percentage of NAV each month and quarter, and that “certain of our perpetual wealth vehicles may amend or suspend share repurchase programs during periods of market dislocation.” Whether that clause is used is for each fund's board; the tender results of the largest one are below.

The numbers Ares gives for money leaving are firm-wide, not by fund. In the AUM roll-forward, redemptions were $2.03 billion in Q2 2026 against $1.58 billion in Q1 (up 28.3%, our arithmetic) and $7.44 billion over twelve months, against distributions of $6.96 billion in Q2 alone. Of the Q2 redemptions, $1.42 billion was in Credit, $0.48 billion in Real Assets and $0.13 billion in Secondaries. Ares does not break out the redemptions by vehicle; the funds' own filings do, and the next section reads them.

What Ares says it raised, and what the funds' own filings show

Ares' presentation lists capital raised by vehicle, defined in a footnote as “equity and debt commitments and gross inflows into our open-ended managed accounts, publicly-traded and perpetual wealth funds.” The funds' 10-Qs report sales of shares, repurchases and, for the REITs, DST program sales. The two sets of numbers are not the same measure and the filings do not reconcile them, so the table lays them side by side.

Three readings follow from the table. First, Ares' AUM for ASIF, $26.6 billion, is larger than the fund's total assets of $23.0 billion and 2.6 times its net assets (our arithmetic), so it is neither; use net assets and NAV per share for what you own. Second, ASIF's inflows in its own books fell by 78% from Q2 2025 to Q2 2026 (our arithmetic) while Ares' slides still show $2.1 billion for “ASIF and its affiliates”; the slides' definition includes debt commitments and the label includes “its affiliates,” which the fund's own statement of share sales does not. Third, for AREIT the slides' $1.0 billion for two quarters is close to the $1,047.7 million that the 10-Q's components add to for six months (our arithmetic: $371.2 million plus $676.5 million), which suggests the slides count DST sales and the $200.0 million from Ares affiliates; neither document says so.

The ASIF numbers show a fund where repurchases overtook sales. In the first half of 2026 ASIF sold $932.7 million of shares and repurchased $1,057.7 million, but reinvested distributions of $130.5 million left its net change from share transactions at a positive $5.5 million across the three classes (our arithmetic). NAV per share fell 2.8% in six months (our arithmetic), from $27.48 to $26.71, and the fund's Q1 return in Ares' table was 0.1%. Its September 2026 tender, the third of 2026, drew 50,400,325 shares; the fund accepted 19,264,139, 38.2% on a pro rata basis, and paid $515.1 million at $26.74 a share (Schedule TO-I/A of September 25, 2026, accession 0001104659-26-110962). Shares held under a year generally take a 2.00% early repurchase deduction, and unfulfilled requests “do not carry over automatically.” The fund's own page, ASIF tender proration, gives the full tender series.

AREIT and AIREIT redeemed everything eligible, at $49.4 million and $116.0 million for the first half, against $66.3 million and $142.2 million a year earlier. Their limits are 2% of NAV a month and 5% a quarter, measured net of new capital. They are not the stressed ones in these filings. The $200.0 million that Ares affiliates put into AREIT in May 2026 as Class B shares is, though, a fact a holder may want to read in the REIT's own 10-Q: it is money from affiliates of the adviser, not from outside investors. See AREIT and AIREIT, and for the sponsor's history, what happened to Black Creek Group.

Performance income: the $350 million guide and the $10 million quarter

Ares gives short-notice updates of its realized net performance income, the carry and incentive fees net of what is paid to professionals. They are the only look at a quarter before the earnings release.

Ares says in each that the estimate is preliminary and not a prediction of other measures. The sum is still the point: $126.2 million for the first half plus about $10 million for Q3 is about $136 million, and $350 million would need about $214 million in Q4 (our arithmetic). That is possible, because Q4 2025 was $102.2 million and the 10-K says realized incentive fees run higher in the second half, but the September 30 8-K does not restate the full-year figure and the March one was written before Q2. The Credit Group's carry in Q2 came mainly from one fund, ACE V ($47.4 million). Accrued but unrealized performance income, shown on the balance sheet, was $4,141.1 million gross and $1,018.5 million net at June 30, 2026 on a GAAP basis; realized income leaves out unrealized performance income until it is realized.

Debt, liquidity and who controls the vote

The Q2 10-Q shows $4,577.2 million of debt obligations at carrying value against $3,941.4 million at December 31, 2025, from a larger revolver and a new term loan.

Two events in the quarter changed the table. On March 27, 2026 Ares Holdings L.P. signed a $400 million term loan due March 27, 2029, with covenants of net debt to adjusted EBITDA not above 4.00 to 1.00 and AUM not below $179.8 billion (Form 8-K Item 1.01, accession 0001628280-26-022155). On May 21, 2026 it amended the revolver to extend the maturity to May 21, 2031 and raise commitments to $2,500,000,000, with an uncommitted accordion to $3,000,000,000 (accession 0001628280-26-038606). The earnings presentation puts cash at $557.1 million, undrawn revolver at $885.0 million and available liquidity at $1,442.1 million, and shows the rating as BBB+ from S&P and Fitch. One inconsistency is worth knowing: the liquidity section of the 10-Q says Ares has “$1,385.0 million available under our Credit Facility,” while the debt note and the presentation give $1,615.0 million drawn on a $2,500.0 million facility, which leaves $885.0 million (our arithmetic). We read the note and the presentation as correct; the filing does not say which figure it means.

Other claims on cash: a tax receivable agreement liability of $622.0 million, paying the TRA recipients 85% of tax savings from exchanges; $55.3 million of maximum exposure to loss on CLO securities; and consolidated CLO loan obligations of $6,951.7 million that are non-recourse to Ares. Ares' own corporate investment portfolio was $1,405.1 million on a GAAP basis and $3,014.6 million on the unconsolidated basis the presentation uses, most of it invested in Ares-managed vehicles.

On control, Ares is a NYSE “controlled company.” The June 8, 2026 annual meeting 8-K lists the April 13 record-date holdings: 222,023,639 Class A shares with one vote each, 1,000 Class B shares with 783,766,262 votes and 104,328,294 Class C shares with one vote each, for 1,110,118,195 votes. The 10-K says that while the “Ares Ownership Condition” is met the Class B holder has four times the Class A votes less the Class C votes, and that Ares Management GP LLC and Ares Voting LLC, the sole Class B and Class C holders, are both wholly owned by Ares Partners Holdco LLC. The Class A and non-voting shares that carry the economics averaged 226.3 million in Q2; most of the votes sit with the Class B holder.

How ARES compares with the funds it manages

ARES, ARCC, ASIF, AREIT and AIREIT are four different kinds of security that share a sponsor. Reading them together shows where the sponsor's interest and yours line up and where they do not.

• Price versus NAV. ARES and ARCC trade on exchanges at a market price. ASIF, AREIT and AIREIT are bought and sold at a NAV per share set by the fund, and what you can sell back is limited: ASIF by a quarterly tender capped at 5% of shares, the REITs by monthly and quarterly caps of 2% and 5% of NAV. ASIF's NAV fell 2.8% in the first half of 2026 (our arithmetic), while the manager's fee related earnings rose 23% (our arithmetic: $955.5 million against $776.4 million).
• What the sponsor earns. On ASIF the adviser earns 1.25% of NAV plus 12.5% of net investment income over a 5% hurdle; on AREIT, 1.10% of NAV plus 12.5% of annual returns over 5%; on ARCC, 1.50% of total assets plus 20% of net investment income over a 7% hurdle, deferred when ARCC misses its four-quarter test. Fees on ASIF and the REITs are charged on NAV, so a lower NAV and fewer shares outstanding both lower the fee.
• Flows lift the manager's fees. Capital raised lifts fee-paying AUM and Part I fees; the 10-Q names ASIF first among the funds behind the Q2 increase in Part I fees, and names lower sales in ASIF as a reason supplemental distribution fees fell.
• Not the same risks. ARES holders carry the fee streams, the performance income timing, the debt and the control structure above. Holders of the funds carry the portfolios and the liquidity limits. Our non-traded BDC list compares ASIF with the other funds in its category, our private credit stress page covers non-accruals, and non-traded versus publicly traded REITs covers the structure.

What a holder or interested reader can do with this

This page is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice. These are the checks the filings support.

• If you hold ARES stock, the next documents are the Q3 2026 earnings release and 10-Q, not filed as of October 15, 2026. Read the dividend declared with them against fee related earnings, the Q3 realized net performance income against the September 30 estimate of about $10 million, and whether the 10-Q again says ARCC Part I fees will be deferred.
• If you hold ASIF, read the fund's own 10-Q and tender documents, not Ares' AUM. The numbers that matter to you are NAV per share ($26.71 at June 30, 2026), the share of tendered shares accepted (34.7% in June, 38.2% in September) and the net change from share transactions. ASIF files each tender offer as a Schedule TO-I; our ASIF page lists each one.
• If you hold AREIT or AIREIT, read the line “All eligible redemption requests were fulfilled” in each 10-Q and the capital raised that is not from outside investors: $200.0 million of AREIT's first-half proceeds came from Ares affiliates and DST sales are a separate program. See AREIT and AIREIT.
• Know what the sponsor is paid. The rate card above is in the 10-K: 1.25% of NAV for ASIF, 1.10% for AREIT and 1.25% for AIREIT, each with a performance fee over a hurdle. That is the sponsor's share of your fund's return before your adviser's fee.
• Watch the dates. The Q3 results are the next Ares filing. The funds file their own 10-Qs and monthly 8-Ks.

For a holder of an Ares non-traded fund, the facts that bear on the decision are two: ASIF paid 34.7% of the shares tendered in June 2026 and 38.2% in September, and AREIT and AIREIT redeemed every eligible request in the first half of 2026. How much that matters depends on your size, your taxes and your other holdings.

FAQ

All figures are from Ares Management Corporation (CIK 1176948) SEC filings read on EDGAR on October 15, 2026: the earnings 8-Ks with Exhibits 99.1 and 99.2 for Q2 2025 (0001628280-25-037107), Q3 2025 (0001628280-25-047895), Q4 2025 (0001628280-26-005596), Q1 2026 (0001628280-26-029083) and Q2 2026 (0001628280-26-051191); the Q2 2026 Form 10-Q (0001628280-26-054538, August 7, 2026); the 2025 Form 10-K (0001628280-26-011413, February 25, 2026); the 8-Ks of March 27 and May 21, 2026 (0001628280-26-022155, 0001628280-26-038606), March 31, July 10 and September 30, 2026 (0001628280-26-022430, 0001628280-26-047830, 0001628280-26-063870) and June 8, 2026 (0001628280-26-042576); and the Q2 2026 Forms 10-Q of Ares Strategic Income Fund (0001628280-26-054923), Ares Real Estate Income Trust (0001628280-26-056330) and Ares Industrial Real Estate Income Trust (0001628280-26-056338), plus ASIF's Schedule TO-I/A of September 25, 2026 (0001104659-26-110962). Percentages, sums, ratios and the dividend as a share of after-tax realized income are our arithmetic. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.