Blair William & Co. IL Cuts Stock Position in Ares Capital Corporation $ARCC

Blair William & Co. IL decreased its holdings in shares of Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 33.2% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 197,385 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 98,217 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $4,335,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of ARCC. Mainstay Capital Management LLC ADV boosted its position in Ares Capital by 101.6% during the second quarter. Mainstay Capital Management LLC ADV now owns 214,528 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $4,711,000 after acquiring an additional 108,120 shares during the last quarter. McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Ares Capital during the second quarter worth about $410,000. Tectonic Advisors LLC boosted its position in Ares Capital by 14.4% during the second quarter. Tectonic Advisors LLC now owns 535,155 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $11,752,000 after acquiring an additional 67,202 shares during the last quarter. Columbus Macro LLC boosted its position in Ares Capital by 11.4% during the second quarter. Columbus Macro LLC now owns 447,906 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $9,836,000 after acquiring an additional 45,982 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clear Creek Financial Management LLC boosted its position in Ares Capital by 3.5% during the second quarter. Clear Creek Financial Management LLC now owns 191,504 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $4,205,000 after acquiring an additional 6,489 shares during the last quarter. 27.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ares Capital Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of ARCC opened at $18.90 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01. Ares Capital Corporation has a 12-month low of $18.26 and a 12-month high of $23.84. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $21.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $21.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.22 and a beta of 0.68.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The investment management company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.01). Ares Capital had a net margin of 44.94% and a return on equity of 10.48%. The company had revenue of $614.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $748.76 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.61 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ares Capital Corporation will post 2.19 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th were given a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 15th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 10.2%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 93.66%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ARCC. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ares Capital in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, B. Riley raised shares of Ares Capital from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $22.50 to $23.50 in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ares Capital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.81.

About Ares Capital

Ares Capital Corporation is a business development company specializing in acquisition, recapitalization, mezzanine debt, restructurings, rescue financing, and leveraged buyout transactions of middle market companies. It also makes growth capital and general refinancing. It prefers to make investments in companies engaged in the basic and growth manufacturing, business services, consumer products, health care products and services, and information technology service sectors.