Blair William & Co. IL Increases Position in Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Key Points

• Blair William & Co. IL increased its holdings in Ares Capital Corporation by 5.3% in the 1st quarter, acquiring an additional 14,897 shares to total 295,602 shares worth approximately $6.55 million.
• Several analysts have upgraded their ratings for Ares Capital, with B. Riley raising its rating to "buy" and setting a price objective of $23.50, while the consensus rating is "Moderate Buy" with a price target of $22.86.
• Ares Capital recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.48 per share, resulting in an annualized dividend of $1.92 and a yield of 8.5%, reflecting a dividend payout ratio of 93.66%.

Blair William & Co. IL increased its holdings in Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCC - Free Report) by 5.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 295,602 shares of the investment management company's stock after purchasing an additional 14,897 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL's holdings in Ares Capital were worth $6,551,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Montag & Caldwell LLC bought a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. Continuum Advisory LLC raised its position in Ares Capital by 320.7% during the 1st quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 1,628 shares of the investment management company's stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 1,241 shares during the last quarter. Investment Management Corp VA ADV lifted its holdings in Ares Capital by 193.9% in the 1st quarter. Investment Management Corp VA ADV now owns 1,828 shares of the investment management company's stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 1,206 shares during the period. PSI Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Ares Capital by 121.1% in the 1st quarter. PSI Advisors LLC now owns 2,100 shares of the investment management company's stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 1,150 shares during the period. Finally, Archer Investment Corp increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 281.3% during the first quarter. Archer Investment Corp now owns 2,440 shares of the investment management company's stock valued at $54,000 after buying an additional 1,800 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on ARCC. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. B. Riley upgraded shares of Ares Capital from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $22.50 to $23.50 in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, JMP Securities set a $23.00 price target on shares of Ares Capital and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $22.86.

Ares Capital Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of NASDAQ ARCC traded up $0.17 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $22.56. 3,573,384 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,441,459. Ares Capital Corporation has a 12-month low of $18.26 and a 12-month high of $23.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.14. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $22.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $22.02. The firm has a market cap of $15.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.00 and a beta of 0.70.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The investment management company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $614.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $748.76 million. Ares Capital had a net margin of 44.94% and a return on equity of 10.48%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.61 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Ares Capital Corporation will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be issued a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.5%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 15th. Ares Capital's dividend payout ratio is 93.66%.

Ares Capital 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.