Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Shares Bought by Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc.

Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 67,541 shares of the investment management company’s stock after buying an additional 1,279 shares during the period. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc.’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $1,353,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ARCC. Baron Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Baron Financial Group LLC now owns 18,366 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $368,000 after purchasing an additional 543 shares in the last quarter. Syntal Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. Syntal Capital Partners LLC now owns 17,346 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $338,000 after purchasing an additional 551 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 35,595 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $693,000 after purchasing an additional 587 shares in the last quarter. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. now owns 14,067 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $274,000 after purchasing an additional 597 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors now owns 12,787 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $256,000 after purchasing an additional 605 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. B. Riley lowered Ares Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $21.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $21.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.80.

Ares Capital Price Performance

ARCC stock traded up $0.08 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $20.74. The stock had a trading volume of 2,077,675 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,593,205. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.77 and a beta of 1.00. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $20.33 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $19.99. Ares Capital Co. has a twelve month low of $17.53 and a twelve month high of $20.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.24.

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 analysts’ expectations of $669.78 million. Ares Capital had a return on equity of 12.50% and a net margin of 58.22%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.68 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. 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.