Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Receives $20.80 Average PT from Analysts

Shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the four analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $20.80.

ARCC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price on shares of Ares Capital in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. B. Riley lowered Ares Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $21.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ares Capital

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ARCC. Confluence Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Ares Capital in the first quarter valued at about $86,227,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 1,865.8% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,214,991 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $844,260,000 after acquiring an additional 4,000,570 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 11.3% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 8,282,079 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $165,890,000 after acquiring an additional 840,823 shares during the last quarter. Melia Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter worth about $13,992,000. Finally, Tudor Investment Corp Et Al acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the third quarter worth about $11,952,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Ares Capital Stock Up 0.3 %

NASDAQ:ARCC opened at $20.66 on Friday. Ares Capital has a twelve month low of $17.53 and a twelve month high of $20.86. The company has a market cap of $12.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.74 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $20.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $19.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The investment management company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.03. Ares Capital had a return on equity of 12.50% and a net margin of 58.22%. The business had revenue of $707.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $669.78 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.68 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Ares Capital will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.29%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.91%.

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.