Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the four brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $20.80.

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ARCC. B. Riley lowered Ares Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $21.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $21.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th.

Ares Capital Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of ARCC opened at $20.78 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.78 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.01. Ares Capital has a twelve month low of $17.53 and a twelve month high of $20.86.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last issued 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. The business had revenue of $707.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $669.78 million. Ares Capital had a return on equity of 12.50% and a net margin of 58.22%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.68 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Ares Capital will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 9.24%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.91%.

Institutional Trading of Ares Capital

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Nemes Rush Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Valley National Advisers Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 323.3% during the first quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 1,435 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 1,096 shares in the last quarter. Pingora Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 93.9% during the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,922 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 931 shares in the last quarter. 27.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.