Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Receives Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC - Get Free Report) have received a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the nine ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $22.00.

A number of research firms have recently commented on ARCC. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Ares Capital from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $24.50 to $22.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Raymond James lowered shares of Ares Capital from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ares Capital

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Advisors Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Ares Capital by 3.0% during the first quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 3,627,990 shares of the investment management company's stock worth $80,396,000 after buying an additional 104,339 shares in the last quarter. Rollins Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Ares Capital by 10.2% during the first quarter. Rollins Financial Advisors LLC now owns 138,139 shares of the investment management company's stock worth $3,061,000 after buying an additional 12,838 shares in the last quarter. Fortis Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Ares Capital by 7.1% during the first quarter. Fortis Capital Advisors LLC now owns 18,517 shares of the investment management company's stock worth $410,000 after buying an additional 1,232 shares in the last quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Ares Capital by 1.7% during the first quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 44,358 shares of the investment management company's stock worth $983,000 after buying an additional 746 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SCS Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Ares Capital during the first quarter worth $11,778,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.38% of the company's stock.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ARCC traded up $0.38 during trading on Friday, reaching $21.97. The stock had a trading volume of 3,276,674 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,139,031. Ares Capital has a 52 week low of $18.26 and a 52 week high of $23.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.97 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $21.05 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $21.92.

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

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.74%. Ares Capital's dividend payout ratio is currently 93.66%.

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.