Palacios Wealth Management LLC Acquires New Position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Palacios Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 28,710 shares of the investment management company’s stock, valued at approximately $646,000. Ares Capital accounts for about 0.7% of Palacios Wealth Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 27th largest holding.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Ares Capital by 2,104.7% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,613,285 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $756,620,000 after purchasing an additional 3,449,395 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in Ares Capital by 11.8% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 14,145,706 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $309,649,000 after purchasing an additional 1,489,552 shares during the last quarter. CCLA Investment Management increased its position in Ares Capital by 31.6% during the fourth quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 2,211,955 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $48,419,000 after purchasing an additional 531,305 shares during the last quarter. Columbus Macro LLC acquired a new position in Ares Capital during the fourth quarter worth approximately $8,870,000. Finally, Partners Group Holding AG increased its position in Ares Capital by 21.2% during the third quarter. Partners Group Holding AG now owns 1,787,401 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $37,428,000 after purchasing an additional 312,255 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on ARCC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Raymond James lowered shares of Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ares Capital has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.94.

Ares Capital Price Performance

Shares of ARCC stock opened at $23.08 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $15.50 billion, a PE ratio of 9.42 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $22.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.58. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03. Ares Capital Co. has a twelve month low of $19.32 and a twelve month high of $23.84.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The investment management company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.03). Ares Capital had a net margin of 50.90% and a return on equity of 11.54%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.32%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 78.37%.

Ares Capital Company Profile

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.