Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Holdings Boosted by Farther Finance Advisors LLC

Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 20.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 49,345 shares of the investment management company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,344 shares during the quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $1,080,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. PFG Advisors increased its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. PFG Advisors now owns 55,360 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $1,212,000 after acquiring an additional 2,181 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 48.6% in the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 1,400,539 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $30,658,000 after purchasing an additional 458,360 shares during the period. Clare Market Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $201,000. Independent Advisor Alliance acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter worth approximately $5,025,000. Finally, Sowell Financial Services LLC grew its holdings in Ares Capital by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Sowell Financial Services LLC now owns 37,464 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $820,000 after buying an additional 1,050 shares in the last quarter. 27.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on ARCC shares. Raymond James lowered Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.94.

Ares Capital Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:ARCC opened at $21.28 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.69 and a beta of 1.00. Ares Capital Co. has a 1-year low of $19.32 and a 1-year high of $23.84. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $22.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $21.89. 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 (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 11.54% and a net margin of 50.90%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.02%. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is presently 78.37%.

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.