Principal Street Partners LLC Purchases 4,275 Shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Principal Street Partners LLC lifted its position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 27.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 19,875 shares of the investment management company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,275 shares during the quarter. Principal Street Partners LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $435,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of Ares Capital by 11.8% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 14,145,706 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $309,649,000 after acquiring an additional 1,489,552 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in Ares Capital by 12.3% during the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 7,951,926 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $174,068,000 after purchasing an additional 871,370 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Ares Capital by 26.0% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,268,547 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $93,439,000 after buying an additional 881,450 shares in the last quarter. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR purchased a new position in Ares Capital in the 4th quarter worth approximately $84,426,000. Finally, Advisors Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 3,523,651 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $77,133,000 after buying an additional 105,526 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ARCC has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $24.50 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Ares Capital from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.00.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ARCC opened at $21.91 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a current ratio of 1.21. Ares Capital Co. has a fifty-two week low of $18.26 and a fifty-two week high of $23.84. The firm has a market cap of $15.11 billion, a PE ratio of 8.94 and a beta of 0.70. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $21.04 and a 200-day moving average price of $21.91.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The investment management company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $599.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $769.32 million. Ares Capital had a net margin of 50.90% and a return on equity of 11.54%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.59 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.76%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.