Legal & General Group Plc Invests $120.54 Million in Ares Capital Corporation $ARCC

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCC) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 6,510,302 shares of the investment management company’s stock, valued at approximately $120,538,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Palladiem LLC bought a new stake in Ares Capital in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. SWAN Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Sankala Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the third quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Core Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. 27.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ARCC. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on Ares Capital from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ares Capital in a report on Tuesday, June 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Ares Capital from $19.00 to $18.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $19.00 price objective (down from $20.00) on shares of Ares Capital in a report on Friday, June 12th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 2nd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ares Capital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $20.40.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ARCC opened at $19.88 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $19.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $18.83. Ares Capital Corporation has a 52 week low of $17.40 and a 52 week high of $22.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.73 and a beta of 0.56.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The investment management company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.47. Ares Capital had a net margin of 30.91% and a return on equity of 9.80%. The firm had revenue of $768.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $770.19 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.50 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Ares Capital Corporation will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is presently 142.22%.

Ares Capital Company Profile

Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ: ARCC) is a publicly traded business development company (BDC) that specializes in providing debt and equity financing solutions to U.S. middle-market companies. As a BDC, Ares Capital offers investors access to a diversified portfolio of tailored credit investments, including senior secured loans, unitranche financing, mezzanine debt and equity co-investments. The firm’s flexible capital structures are designed to support companies seeking growth capital, refinancing or strategic acquisitions.

Through its credit platform, Ares Capital focuses on originations, underwriting and portfolio management across a range of industries, with a particular emphasis on sectors such as healthcare, technology, industrials and business services.