Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the nine brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $21.71.

ARCC has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Compass Point raised shares of Ares Capital to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. JMP Securities raised their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. UBS Group upgraded shares of Ares Capital to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $21.50 to $22.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd.

Institutional Trading of Ares Capital

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ARCC. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Ares Capital by 5.4% during the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 582,578 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $12,129,000 after buying an additional 29,671 shares in the last quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC boosted its holdings in Ares Capital by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 389,236 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $7,913,000 after purchasing an additional 20,202 shares during the period. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. boosted its holdings in Ares Capital by 614.8% in the fourth quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 7,198 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $144,000 after purchasing an additional 6,191 shares during the period. Gilbert & Cook Inc. boosted its holdings in Ares Capital by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 1,384,752 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $27,737,000 after purchasing an additional 85,561 shares during the period. Finally, Confluence Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Ares Capital in the first quarter worth $86,227,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Ares Capital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ARCC opened at $21.01 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $12.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.20 and a beta of 1.01. Ares Capital has a 52 week low of $18.55 and a 52 week high of $21.84. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $20.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $20.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The investment management company reported $0.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.03. Ares Capital had a net margin of 59.76% and a return on equity of 12.24%. The company had revenue of $755.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $714.27 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.58 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ares Capital will post 2.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.14%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 65.75%.

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.