Credit Agricole S A Raises Stock Holdings in Ares Capital Corporation $ARCC

Key Points

• Credit Agricole S A has increased its stake in Ares Capital Corporation (ARCC) by 55.7%, acquiring an additional 276,293 shares, bringing its total holdings to approximately 772,219 shares valued at $17.1 million.
• Ares Capital recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.48 per share, set to be paid out on September 30th, representing an annualized dividend yield of 8.6%.
• Analysts have mixed opinions on Ares Capital’s stock, with price targets ranging from $22.00 to $23.50, and the consensus rating is a "Moderate Buy."

Credit Agricole S A raised its position in shares of Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCC - Free Report) by 55.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 772,219 shares of the investment management company's stock after purchasing an additional 276,293 shares during the quarter. Credit Agricole S A owned 0.11% of Ares Capital worth $17,112,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 241,119 shares of the investment management company's stock valued at $5,343,000 after acquiring an additional 1,776 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 18.2% during the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 47,840 shares of the investment management company's stock valued at $1,058,000 after acquiring an additional 7,381 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 23,571.4% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 3,314 shares of the investment management company's stock valued at $73,000 after acquiring an additional 3,300 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 2,116.0% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 13,274 shares of the investment management company's stock valued at $2,940,000 after acquiring an additional 12,675 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 2.8% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 24,361 shares of the investment management company's stock valued at $540,000 after acquiring an additional 666 shares during the period. 27.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on ARCC shares. B. Riley upgraded Ares Capital from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $22.50 to $23.50 in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Ares Capital from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Ares Capital from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 16th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ares Capital has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $22.86.

Ares Capital Price Performance

ARCC stock traded down $0.2150 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $22.1050. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,242,265 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,480,954. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.78 and a beta of 0.70. Ares Capital Corporation has a 12 month low of $18.26 and a 12 month high of $23.84. The company has a 50 day moving average of $22.38 and a two-hundred day moving average of $21.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $614.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $748.76 million. Ares Capital had a return on equity of 10.48% and a net margin of 44.94%.During the same period last year, the company earned $0.61 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Ares Capital Corporation will post 2.19 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th. Ares Capital's dividend payout ratio is 93.66%.

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.