Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Shares Sold by Northern Trust Corp

Northern Trust Corp lowered its stake in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC - Free Report) by 7.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 940,746 shares of the investment management company's stock after selling 79,783 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp owned about 0.14% of Ares Capital worth $20,593,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ARCC. Montag & Caldwell LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in Ares Capital during the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. Promus Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Ares Capital during the 4th quarter valued at about $48,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Ares Capital during the 4th quarter valued at about $60,000. Finally, Montag A & Associates Inc. grew its stake in Ares Capital by 92.6% during the 4th quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 2,889 shares of the investment management company's stock valued at $63,000 after acquiring an additional 1,389 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company's stock.

Ares Capital Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:ARCC traded up $0.24 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $21.91. 2,429,861 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,136,487. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 1.21. The firm has a market cap of $15.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.94 and a beta of 0.70. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $21.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $21.90. Ares Capital Co. has a 1 year low of $18.26 and a 1 year high of $23.84.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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). The company had revenue of $599.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $769.32 million. Ares Capital had a return on equity of 11.54% and a net margin of 50.90%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.59 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th will be given 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 dividend yield of 8.76%. Ares Capital's payout ratio is currently 93.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $24.50 to $22.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. UBS Group decreased 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. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Raymond James cut shares of Ares Capital from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Ares Capital from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target 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.