Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) Cut to Market Perform at Raymond James

Raymond James lowered shares of Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning, Marketbeat.com reports.

ARCC has been the subject of several other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. StockNews.com raised shares of Ares Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, B. Riley increased their price target on Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.64.

Ares Capital Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ ARCC opened at $22.73 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $22.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $21.51. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. Ares Capital has a 12-month low of $19.32 and a 12-month high of $23.84. The company has a market cap of $14.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.74 and a beta of 1.01.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The investment management company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.03). Ares Capital had a net margin of 53.71% and a return on equity of 12.06%. Research analysts anticipate that Ares Capital will post 2.36 EPS 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 given a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.45%. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is 73.85%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ares Capital

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ares Capital by 2,104.7% in 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 period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ares Capital in the 4th quarter worth about $58,159,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 11.8% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 14,145,706 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $309,649,000 after buying an additional 1,489,552 shares during the period. CCLA Investment Management grew its position in shares of Ares Capital by 31.6% during the 4th quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 2,211,955 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $48,419,000 after buying an additional 531,305 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Columbus Macro LLC acquired a new stake in Ares Capital during the fourth quarter worth about $8,870,000. 27.38% of the stock is 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.