Private Advisor Group LLC Has $7.96 Million Stock Holdings in Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Private Advisor Group LLC increased its stake in Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCC - Free Report) by 6.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 359,329 shares of the investment management company's stock after buying an additional 21,748 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC owned 0.05% of Ares Capital worth $7,963,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FLC Capital Advisors grew its position in shares of Ares Capital by 18.1% during the first quarter. FLC Capital Advisors now owns 60,566 shares of the investment management company's stock valued at $1,342,000 after purchasing an additional 9,272 shares in the last quarter. Muzinich & Co. Inc. grew its holdings in Ares Capital by 17.0% in the first quarter. Muzinich & Co. Inc. now owns 1,125,251 shares of the investment management company's stock worth $24,936,000 after purchasing an additional 163,420 shares during the last quarter. Archer Investment Corp grew its holdings 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 last quarter. Transce3nd LLC raised its position in shares of Ares Capital by 14.7% in the first quarter. Transce3nd LLC now owns 83,696 shares of the investment management company's stock worth $1,855,000 after acquiring an additional 10,719 shares during the period. Finally, Independent Wealth Network Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 4.8% in the 1st quarter. Independent Wealth Network Inc. now owns 49,774 shares of the investment management company's stock valued at $1,103,000 after buying an additional 2,269 shares during the period. 27.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ARCC shares. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. B. Riley raised shares of Ares Capital to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $22.21.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

Shares of Ares Capital stock traded up $0.06 on Thursday, reaching $23.13. The stock had a trading volume of 807,340 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,612,472. The business's 50-day moving average price is $22.09 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $22.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.40. Ares Capital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $18.26 and a fifty-two week high of $23.84. The stock has a market cap of $16.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.29 and a beta of 0.67.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The investment management company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.54 by ($0.04). Ares Capital had a net margin of 43.50% and a return on equity of 11.05%. The firm had revenue of $599.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $769.32 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.59 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Ares Capital Corporation will post 2.19 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th were paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.30%. Ares Capital's payout ratio is 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.