NorthRock Partners LLC Buys New Shares in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

NorthRock Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 26,742 shares of the investment management company's stock, valued at approximately $585,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ARCC. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the 4th quarter valued at about $84,426,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $58,159,000. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of Ares Capital by 11.8% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 14,145,706 shares of the investment management company's stock valued at $309,649,000 after buying an additional 1,489,552 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position 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 buying an additional 881,450 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in shares of Ares Capital by 12.3% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 7,951,926 shares of the investment management company's stock worth $174,068,000 after purchasing an additional 871,370 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.38% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on ARCC. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Raymond James downgraded Ares Capital from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. StockNews.com cut Ares Capital from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ares Capital presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $22.00.

Ares Capital Price Performance

NASDAQ ARCC traded down $0.24 on Wednesday, hitting $21.76. 832,630 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,117,793. Ares Capital Co. has a 1-year low of $18.26 and a 1-year high of $23.84. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $21.05 and a two-hundred day moving average of $21.91. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03. The company has a market cap of $15.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.88 and a beta of 0.70.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The investment management company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.54 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $599.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $769.32 million. Ares Capital had a net margin of 50.90% and a return on equity of 11.54%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.59 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.83%. Ares Capital's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.