Royal Bank of Canada Has $89.54 Million Stake in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Royal Bank of Canada lessened its stake in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC - Free Report) by 5.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,090,665 shares of the investment management company's stock after selling 248,040 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada owned about 0.61% of Ares Capital worth $89,544,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in Ares Capital by 11.8% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 14,145,706 shares of the investment management company's stock valued at $309,649,000 after purchasing an additional 1,489,552 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in Ares Capital by 12.3% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 7,951,926 shares of the investment management company's stock valued at $174,068,000 after purchasing an additional 871,370 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Ares Capital by 26.0% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,268,547 shares of the investment management company's stock valued at $93,439,000 after purchasing an additional 881,450 shares in the last quarter. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR acquired a new position in Ares Capital during the fourth quarter worth about $84,426,000. Finally, Advisors Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Ares Capital by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 3,523,651 shares of the investment management company's stock worth $77,133,000 after acquiring an additional 105,526 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.38% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on ARCC. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Ares Capital from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Ares Capital from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Raymond James downgraded Ares Capital from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $22.00.

Ares Capital Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of Ares Capital stock traded up $0.07 on Friday, hitting $21.59. The stock had a trading volume of 2,118,072 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,142,483. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $21.05 and a 200 day moving average of $21.92. Ares Capital Co. has a twelve month low of $18.26 and a twelve month high of $23.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a current ratio of 1.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.81 and a beta of 0.70.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC - Get Free Report) last announced 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 50.90% and a return on equity of 11.54%. The company had revenue of $599.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $769.32 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.59 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.89%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. Ares Capital's payout ratio is presently 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.