Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Shares Bought by RDA Financial Network

RDA Financial Network grew its position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 1.3% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 78,844 shares of the investment management company’s stock after acquiring an additional 984 shares during the quarter. RDA Financial Network’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $1,747,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. US Bancorp DE raised its position in Ares Capital by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 43,056 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $942,000 after purchasing an additional 1,945 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp acquired a new position in Ares Capital in the fourth quarter valued at $222,000. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the fourth quarter valued at about $310,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 938,635 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $20,547,000 after buying an additional 53,229 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sage Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Sage Advisors LLC now owns 964,688 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $21,117,000 after buying an additional 54,063 shares during the period. 27.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ares Capital Trading Up 1.1%

NASDAQ:ARCC opened at $22.19 on Friday. Ares Capital Co. has a 1 year low of $18.26 and a 1 year high of $23.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a current ratio of 1.21. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $21.03 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $21.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.06 and a beta of 0.68.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The investment management company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by ($0.04). Ares Capital had a return on equity of 11.54% and a net margin of 50.90%. The company had revenue of $599.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $769.32 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.59 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.65%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 93.66%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ARCC. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Ares Capital from $24.50 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.00.

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.