Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) Issues Earnings Results

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC - Get Free Report) released its earnings results on Tuesday. The investment management company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.54 by ($0.04), Zacks reports. 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $769.32 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.59 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year.

Ares Capital Price Performance

Shares of ARCC stock traded up $0.46 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $20.80. 3,299,672 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,118,976. The stock's 50-day moving average is $21.34 and its 200-day moving average is $21.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 1.21. Ares Capital has a 52 week low of $18.26 and a 52 week high of $23.84. The stock has a market cap of $14.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.49 and a beta of 0.77.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. Ares Capital's payout ratio is 78.37%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ARCC. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Ares Capital from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Raymond James cut shares of Ares Capital from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered 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, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $22.22.

Ares Capital Company Profile

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.