Ares Management Posts Higher Revenue and Higher Net Income on the Three-Month View

Bottom line

For the three-month reporting period covered by this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, Ares Management Corporation reported higher revenue and higher net income attributable to the parent on a year-over-year basis, with the filing's unaudited condensed consolidated statements providing the underlying figures. Net Income (Loss) Attributable to Parent was $47,170,000 USD for the prior-year comparative window and rose to $142,589,000 USD for the three-month reporting period, a profit-to-profit transition in which the current quarter again delivered a positive result. Revenue from Contract with Customer, Excluding Assessed Tax was $1,088,805,000 USD for the prior-year comparative window and increased to $1,396,436,000 USD for the three-month reporting period. A separate Revenues line — presented alongside the contract-revenue figure, consistent with the segment and unconsolidated reporting framework the issuer describes in its cautionary forward-looking statements section — was $1,004,508,000 USD for the prior-year comparative window and rose to $1,298,861,000 USD for the three-month reporting period. The filing evidence does not attribute this change to any single cause..

The filing is identified by ticker ARES under Central Index Key 0001176948 and accession 0001628280-26-032990, reporting on fiscal period period-ended-2026-03-31 for company Ares Management Corp. The source scope for this analysis is the cited note captioned Note 13, which carries the Segment Reporting disclosure within the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements, alongside the cover-page cautionary note that introduces the forward-looking-statements discussion and points readers to Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and to Item 1A. Risk Factors for fuller context. Item-number anchors drawn from the same cover page, including Item 1, Item 2, Item 3, Item 4, Item 5, and Item 6, frame the surrounding Part I and Part II sections of the report and are referenced here only to delineate the document's structure rather than to introduce new facts. The filing evidence contains no peer or industry comparison..

In framing what this section covers, the answer-first conclusion above summarises the headline direction — both the top-line revenue measures and the bottom-line parent-attributable profit moved higher year over year — and the identity-and-scope block above names the form type, issuer, fiscal period, ticker, CIK, and accession so a reader can locate the exact filing in the public record. The cross-check against an interim disclosure with a similar shape, such as the comparable Ares Management's Interim Filing Shows Higher Revenue and Higher Profit on Both Quarter and Year-to-Date Views note, confirms that the year-over-year direction shown here on the three-month view is consistent with the directional read already documented on a comparable interim basis; readers should still verify the precise figures against the cited note themselves. No separate percentage, ratio, or growth-rate figure is asserted here, because every visible number in this article is sourced from the catalog rather than computed.

Financial performance

The interim report filed by Ares Management Corp on Form 10-Q for period-ended-2026-03-31, under accession 0001628280-26-032990, frames its operating results through a layered presentation that bears directly on how the headline numbers should be read. The Company consolidates a wide perimeter that includes majority-owned affiliates, affiliated funds and co-investment vehicles, variable interest entities such as collateralized loan obligations, and strategic joint ventures established with third-party investors. Because consolidation is applied on a gross basis, the GAAP statements reflect the assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses, and cash flows of those entities in full, with intercompany items eliminated. Fees earned from the consolidated funds — management fees, carried interest, incentive fees and other charges — are removed on consolidation, while the performance-related compensation and other expenses incurred to generate those revenues remain visible in the income statement. The portion of consolidated earnings belonging to outside investors is presented as net income attributable to non-controlling interests in Consolidated Funds, with additional allocations to redeemable interest and non-controlling interests in Ares Operating Group entities.

Management overlays this GAAP view with two non-GAAP presentations referenced in the filing: a segment basis that deconsolidates the consolidated funds and strips out the proportional results of third-party investors in the consolidated joint ventures, and an unconsolidated reporting basis that combines the operating segments with the Operations Management Group. The OMG itself comprises shared resource groups — accounting and finance, operations, information technology, legal, compliance, human resources, strategy and relationship management, and the wealth distribution platform Ares Wealth Management Solutions, which operates through the registered broker-dealer Ares Management Capital Markets LLC. The OMG is not allocated to the operating segments, but its cost structure is considered when management evaluates financial performance. Further disaggregation is provided in the segment reporting discussion within the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements, captured here as Note 13.

Within that consolidated perimeter, the period-on-period comparisons registered in the source record show Revenue from Contract with Customer, Excluding Assessed Tax moving from $1,088,805,000 USD in the three months ended March 31, 2025 to $1,396,436,000 USD in the three months ended March 31, 2026, and total Revenues moving from $1,004,508,000 USD to $1,298,861,000 USD over the same window. The authorized direction in each case is higher than the prior period. Net Income (Loss) Attributable to Parent likewise moved from $47,170,000 USD in the three months ended March 31, 2025 to $142,589,000 USD in the three months ended March 31, 2026, with the authorized direction higher than the prior period and the authorized transition described as profit to profit. These year-over-year movements sit against the qualitative baseline that segment-basis and unconsolidated-basis presentations are intended to give the reader a cleaner view of the operating segments, distinct from the gross consolidated totals required by GAAP.

The filing does not provide quarterly sequential comparisons, forward guidance, or a quantified peer or industry baseline in the filing evidence, so the quarterly-on-quarterly direction and any expectations framing are not addressed here. The filing evidence does not attribute this change to any single cause. The filing evidence contains no peer or industry comparison.

Operating drivers and segments

- The issuer reports more than one operating view, presenting GAAP consolidated results, a "segment basis" that strips out consolidation of consolidated funds and third-party investor share of joint ventures, and an "unconsolidated reporting basis" that combines the operating segments with the Operations Management Group (the "OMG"). The cited note on Segment Reporting within the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements is the formal segment disclosure that supports these views. - The two revenue lines that anchor the top of the income statement both move higher year over year: Revenue from Contract with Customer, Excluding Assessed Tax is reported at $1,088,805,000 USD for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and at $1,396,436,000 USD for the three months ended March 31, 2026, while a separate Revenues line is reported at $1,004,508,000 USD for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and at $1,298,861,000 USD for the three months ended March 31, 2026. The reported authorization confirms each as a higher level in the three months ended March 31, 2026 than in the three months ended March 31, 2025. - The filing describes a placement fee adjustment that realigns GAAP placement-fee expense timing with the period over which the related management fee is earned for segment purposes, meaning that segment-basis expense recognition can diverge from the GAAP timing.

- Management frames operating performance through three reporting layers rather than a single consolidated view, and frames segment results after deconsolidation adjustments and the placement fee timing realignment described above. - Management's cautionary note identifies forward-looking statements about operations and financial performance, and points readers to the cited sections on Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and Risk Factors as the primary risk references; the filing continues to consolidate certain affiliated funds, co-investment vehicles and joint ventures under GAAP, which the narrative explicitly distinguishes from segment and unconsolidated reporting bases. - For line-item year-over-year movement that the segment and management commentary cannot separate from internal timing items, The filing evidence does not attribute this change to any single cause. Any implied connection between segment-basis reclassifications and the consolidated income statement is left as management's framing, not independently reconstructed here.

Cash flow and capital

The filing covers the three-month period covered by 10-Q period-ended-2026-03-31, filed under accession 0001628280-26-032990 by Ares Management Corp (ARES, CIK 0001176948), and the prior-year comparative shown alongside it. Reported facts

- Operating activities provided cash of $406,515,000 USD in the three months ended March 31, 2026, compared with $1,994,203,000 USD in the three months ended March 31, 2025 — a softer outcome than the prior-year quarter, consistent with the authorized direction for this line. - Investing activities used cash of -$7,166,000 USD in the three months ended March 31, 2026, compared with a smaller use of -$1,744,690,000 USD in the three months ended March 31, 2025. - Financing activities used cash of -$292,911,000 USD in the three months ended March 31, 2026, compared with a smaller use of -$1,177,727,000 USD in the three months ended March 31, 2025.

Management explanation

The MD&A section at Item 7 frames liquidity around the Ares Operating Group revolver, Consolidated Funds' financing arrangements, and ongoing capital deployment. The cited narrative describes how AUM is built from NAV, drawn and undrawn debt, and uncalled committed capital for most funds, with collateralised loan obligations measured at initial principal adjusted for paydowns and Real Assets funds measured on a GAV basis. That context helps frame why investing and financing flows can swing period to period, but the filing itself does not attribute the current-quarter movements to any single underlying transaction or programme.

Analyst inference

The pattern is consistent with an asset manager that funds its own commitments and manages Consolidated Funds: positive operating cash, paired with investing and financing outflows, is the structural shape expected when capital is being deployed and when fund-level financing is being repaid or arranged. The current period shows operating cash lower than the prior period while investing and financing outflows were larger, suggesting more activity on the deployment and funding sides even as fee-driven cash conversion softened — The filing evidence does not attribute this change to any single cause..

Capital allocation

- Dividends paid in the three months ended March 31, 2026 were $25,442,000 USD, a cash outflow that is reported within financing activities. - The disclosure of "available capital" (or dry powder) within the source narrative points to uncalled commitments and undrawn credit facility amounts as the pool Ares can draw on to fund investments, repay debt, or return capital, alongside Consolidated Funds' debt facilities. - The cited definition of "Consolidated Funds" — certain Ares funds, co-invest vehicles, structured financing vehicles, CLOs and SPACs required to be consolidated under GAAP — is relevant because their cash movements flow through Ares' statements even though they are not wholly Ares-owned.

Counter-evidence and unknowns

- The filing evidence does not provide a balance-sheet snapshot (debt, leverage, total equity, or cash and equivalents) for this section to analyse directly; balance-sheet figures were not in the placeholder catalog supplied for this section, so any further detail on liquidity buffers is unavailable. - Segment-level cash-flow detail is not disclosed in this section's evidence: The filing evidence does not disclose segment-level detail for this dimension.. - No peer or industry cash-flow comparison is included: The filing evidence contains no peer or industry comparison.. - Whether the larger financing outflow reflects dividend payments, debt repayment, share repurchases, or Consolidated Funds' activity is not separately broken out beyond the dividends line: The filing evidence does not attribute this change to any single cause..

For broader context on how this interim filing sits against peers, see Ares Management's Interim Filing Shows Higher Revenue and Higher Profit on Both Quarter and Year-to-Date Views.

Peer and historical context

The interim filing under 10-Q for period-ended-2026-03-31, filed by Ares Management Corp under 0001628280-26-032990 (ticker ARES, CIK 0001176948), frames its own period-over-period movement by reference to the prior-year quarter, with the discussion of trends anchored in Item 7. Against that same prior-year window, the headline top-line and profitability figures all sit higher year over year on both axes management itself highlights: Revenue from Contract with Customer, Excluding Assessed Tax moved from $1,088,805,000 USD in the three months ended March 31, 2025 to $1,396,436,000 USD in the three months ended March 31, 2026, and the broader Revenues line rose from $1,004,508,000 USD to $1,298,861,000 USD over the same comparison. Net Income (Loss) Attributable to Parent likewise shifted from $47,170,000 USD to $142,589,000 USD, with management's authorized transition reading as profit-to-profit rather than a recovery from a loss.

What the filing does not offer, and what a reader should not infer from this section, is a clean peer set. The filing evidence contains no peer or industry comparison. The interim report does not name comparable alternative-asset managers, does not disclose the operating margin, return-on-equity, or fee-related-earnings level of any rival firm, and does not benchmark Ares Management's realized FRE, performance income, or FRE margin against any industry index for the three months ended March 31, 2026. The earlier Lizely Finance write-up on Ares Management's Interim Filing Shows Higher Revenue and Higher Profit on Both Quarter and Year-to-Date Views reaches the same year-over-year conclusion on the top and bottom lines, and that consistency supports the directional read here; cross-issuer context (for example, the softer quarter at SMITH A O CORP (AOS) Reports Softer Revenue, Operating Income, Net Income, and Diluted EPS on Both the Quarter and Six-Month Year-to-Date Views in Form 10-Q period-ended) comes from outside the filing rather than from anything Ares presents beside its own prior period.

For cash generation, Net Cash Provided by (Used in) Operating Activities declined year over year, moving from $1,994,203,000 USD in the three months ended March 31, 2025 to $406,515,000 USD in the three months ended March 31, 2026. That is a softer cash outcome sitting alongside stronger revenue and stronger net income — a divergence, not a contradiction, but one the filing's body text does not reconcile, and The filing evidence does not attribute this change to any single cause. applies. The unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements, viewed through the segment lens in the cited note, group the business into reporting segments under Note 13, yet The filing evidence does not disclose segment-level detail for this dimension. constrains any segment-level read of whether one channel — management fees, performance income, or realized investment income — pulled the cash figure lower while the GAAP profitability lines held up or advanced.

On a multi-year basis, this section cannot extend the comparison: the filing evidence supplies only the current three-month period and its prior-year counterpart, with no earlier interim points to construct a trend line. Other reported items — share-based compensation recognized in APIC, share-based payment expense, and amortization of intangibles — carry their own year-over-year authorized directions in the machine-supplied comparisons, and each is grounded in the same Item 7 discussion; together they frame Ares's quarter as an improvement on the income statement supported by a higher revenue base, paired with the softer operating cash flow described above.

Scenario analysis

Reported as the continuation of recent operating trends, the 10-Q filed by Ares Management Corp for period-ended-2026-03-31 (accession 0001628280-26-032990) shows a quarter where both the top line and the bottom line moved in the same direction relative to the prior-year window. Management's narrative in the cited segment-reporting note describes fee streams that depend on assets under management, performance outcomes relative to hurdle rates, and the timing of expense recognition, all of which feed the realized-income operating metric that frames how the firm talks about its profitability Note 13. Under this base view, what is on the page supports a steady continuation: revenue recorded under contracts with customers sits at $1,396,436,000 USD for the three months ended March 31, 2026, above the prior-year comparative of $1,088,805,000 USD for the three months ended March 31, 2025, and total revenues of $1,298,861,000 USD for the three months ended March 31, 2026 likewise exceed $1,004,508,000 USD for the three months ended March 31, 2025. Net income attributable to parent reaches $142,589,000 USD for the three months ended March 31, 2026, higher than the $47,170,000 USD reported for the three months ended March 31, 2025, keeping the firm in profit on both sides of the comparison. Where the evidence does not speak, the framework simply does not extend: The filing evidence does not attribute this change to any single cause.

A constructive read would require the reported gains to extend into the next reporting window rather than prove to be a single-quarter effect. In this scenario the higher top-line readings of $1,396,436,000 USD and $1,298,861,000 USD for the three months ended March 31, 2026 would need to be supported by the kind of recurring fee base the filing describes, with management-fee streams and any realized performance income converting into the realized-income operating metric at a sustained pace Note 13. Net income attributable to parent of $142,589,000 USD for the three months ended March 31, 2026, comfortably above the $47,170,000 USD of the three months ended March 31, 2025, would mark a high-water mark that the firm would need to defend. Confidence in that path depends on whether the assets that generate carried interest and incentive fees continue to clear the hurdles referenced in the segment-reporting definitions, and on the timing of any deferred payment obligations referenced in the cited note. The filing does not provide forward guidance that would let a reader convert this scenario into a quantitative projection; The filing evidence does not attribute this change to any single cause.

A cautious read would focus on the parts of the business that the filing describes as performance-contingent rather than recurring. The carried-interest, incentive-fee and Part II Fee mechanics outlined in Note 13 mean that the gap between the current quarter's $1,396,436,000 USD and the prior year's $1,088,805,000 USD, and similarly the movement from $1,004,508,000 USD to $1,298,861,000 USD for the three months ended March 31, 2026, is exposed to mark-to-market reversals on the underlying fund NAVs. Net income attributable to parent of $142,589,000 USD for the three months ended March 31, 2026, though above $47,170,000 USD for the three months ended March 31, 2025, could compress if unrealized positions referenced in the realized-income framework move against the firm and trigger the kinds of unrealized-loss items that the cited definitions specifically exclude from the operating metric Note 13. The filing also leaves a peer dimension blank: The filing evidence contains no peer or industry comparison.

Risks and what to watch

The headline quarter shows both revenue measures higher and net income higher than the prior-year three-month window, but the direction of change in operating cash flow reverses relative to investing and financing flows, which is the most important tension to monitor entering the next reporting period.

Revenue from Contract with Customer, Excluding Assessed Tax was $1,088,805,000 USD for the prior-year comparative three-month period the three months ended March 31, 2025 and $1,396,436,000 USD for the three-month period the three months ended March 31, 2026, higher than the prior period. - Revenues, presented alongside that contract revenue line, were $1,004,508,000 USD for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and $1,298,861,000 USD for the three months ended March 31, 2026, also higher. - Net Income (Loss) Attributable to Parent was $47,170,000 USD for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and $142,589,000 USD for the three months ended March 31, 2026, a higher profit than the prior period, with both quarters remaining profitable rather than flipping to a loss. - This disclosure appears in the interim filing on 10-Q for period-ended-2026-03-31 filed by Ares Management Corp (ticker ARES, CIK 0001176948, accession 0001628280-26-032990), with the segment context addressed in the cited note referenced as Note 13.

MANAGEMENT EXPLANATIONS Management attributes differences between segment-level performance measures and GAAP results to equity-based compensation, amortization of intangibles, transaction costs from mergers, acquisitions and capital activities, underwriting costs from corporate reorganizations, and a placement-fee adjustment that re-times GAAP placement-fee expense to the period over which related management fees are expected to be earned. They also caution that many proprietary measures, including AUM, FPAUM, FRE and RI, are not comparable across companies, are not based on the fund agreement definitions, and should not substitute for GAAP operating income, net income or cash flow data.

ANALYST INFERENCE Higher contract revenue and higher total revenue together with a higher net income line is internally consistent, but a separate signal appears in the cash-flow statement: net cash from operating activities was lower than the prior-year quarter even as net cash from investing and financing activities was higher (still negative in both cases). That pattern is unusual alongside rising profitability and warrants follow-up, since it could simply reflect working-capital timing or could foreshadow a future earnings-quality concern.

COUNTER-EVIDENCE The placement-fee adjustment and the non-GAAP segment measures act as a counterweight to the top-line optimism, because they show that headline segment fees can be smoothed relative to GAAP expense. The non-comparability warning for AUM and FPAUM also weakens any narrative that treats the firm's own AUM growth as an industry benchmark.

UNKNOWN The filing evidence does not attribute this change to any single cause. The filing evidence contains no peer or industry comparison.

METRICS TO WATCH NEXT PERIOD - Net Income (Loss) Attributable to Parent, to see whether the higher profit print sustains. - Revenue from Contract with Customer, Excluding Assessed Tax and the broader Revenues line, to confirm continued top-line growth. - Net Cash Provided by (Used in) Operating Activities, to verify whether the lower operating cash flow was a timing effect or a structural shift. - Disclosure updates within Item 1A risk factors and Item 4 legal proceedings, as these can materially change the risk profile between filings.