Ares Slides 0.3% as ACRE Posts Q2 Losses Despite 403rd Trading Volume Rank

On August 5, 2025, Ares Management (ARES) declined 0.30% with a trading volume of $0.30 billion, ranking 403rd in market activity. The firm’s affiliate, Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation (ACRE), reported a second-quarter GAAP net loss of $11.0 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, alongside a Distributable Earnings loss of $27.9 million, or $0.51 per share. Management highlighted efforts to resolve high-risk loans and reduce office loan exposure, while securing $43 million in new senior loan commitments for the third quarter. The company also declared a $0.15 per share dividend for Q3 2025, maintaining its payout level from prior periods.

The results reflect ongoing challenges in ACRE’s portfolio, including a $337 million increase in repayments over the first half of 2025, which bolstered liquidity. As of June 30, 2025, the firm held $178 million in available capital, with $94 million in cash, translating to over $1.70 per share. Executives emphasized that improved balance sheet flexibility enables both risk mitigation and opportunistic lending, though earnings pressures persist amid a volatile real estate market. The Distributable Earnings metric, adjusted for non-GAAP items, underscores the gap between reported losses and cash flow generation, a key consideration for income-focused investors.

A strategy of purchasing the top 500 stocks by daily trading volume and holding them for one day generated a 166.71% return from 2022 to the present, outperforming the benchmark’s 29.18% by 137.53%. This highlights the influence of liquidity concentration in short-term performance, particularly during market volatility.