Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the four analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $20.80.

ARCC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. B. Riley downgraded shares of Ares Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $21.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note 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 research note on Tuesday, March 26th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the 4th quarter worth $1,431,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the 4th quarter worth $1,497,000. D.B. Root & Company LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the 3rd quarter worth $1,260,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the 4th quarter worth $123,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 29.8% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 241,231 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $4,697,000 after purchasing an additional 55,386 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Ares Capital Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:ARCC opened at $20.79 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.24. The company has a market cap of $12.61 billion, a PE ratio of 7.79 and a beta of 1.00. Ares Capital has a 52 week low of $17.53 and a 52 week high of $20.86. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $20.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $20.00.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The investment management company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $707.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $669.78 million. Ares Capital had a net margin of 58.22% and a return on equity of 12.50%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.68 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Ares Capital will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.24%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.