Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. Acquires 540 Shares of Ares Capital Corporation $ARCC

Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lifted its holdings in Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 1.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 32,245 shares of the investment management company’s stock after acquiring an additional 540 shares during the quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc.’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $708,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in ARCC. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new stake in Ares Capital during the 2nd quarter valued at $877,203,000. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Ares Capital by 87.2% during the 1st quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 2,621,109 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $58,084,000 after buying an additional 1,220,570 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC bought a new stake in Ares Capital during the 1st quarter valued at $14,766,000. CCLA Investment Management raised its holdings in Ares Capital by 26.5% during the 1st quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 2,799,023 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $62,026,000 after buying an additional 587,068 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SCS Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Ares Capital during the 1st quarter valued at $11,778,000. 27.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on ARCC shares. JMP Securities set a $23.00 price target on shares of Ares Capital and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Capital One Financial set a $22.50 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a report on Friday, October 10th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ares Capital in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased 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. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Ares Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, October 19th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.63.

Ares Capital Stock Up 0.7%

NASDAQ:ARCC opened at $20.08 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $21.07 and its 200-day moving average price is $21.52. The company has a market capitalization of $14.16 billion, a PE ratio of 9.80 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 1.14. Ares Capital Corporation has a 1-year low of $18.26 and a 1-year high of $23.84.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The investment management company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $614.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $748.76 million. Ares Capital had a return on equity of 10.48% and a net margin of 44.94%.During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.61 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Ares Capital Corporation will post 2.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th were given a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 15th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is 93.66%.

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.