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Ares Capital (ARCC) Competitors

Ares Capital logo
$20.08 +0.14 (+0.70%)
Closing price 10/24/2025 04:00 PM Eastern
Extended Trading
$20.07 -0.01 (-0.05%)
As of 10/24/2025 07:50 PM Eastern
Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more.

ARCC vs. GBDC, OCSL, EPD, FSK, HTGC, MAIN, OBDC, TSLX, AMP, and STT

Should you be buying Ares Capital stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Ares Capital include Golub Capital BDC (GBDC), Oaktree Specialty Lending (OCSL), Enterprise Products Partners (EPD), FS KKR Capital (FSK), Hercules Capital (HTGC), Main Street Capital (MAIN), Blue Owl Capital (OBDC), Sixth Street Specialty Lending (TSLX), Ameriprise Financial (AMP), and State Street (STT).

Ares Capital vs. Its Competitors

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) and Golub Capital BDC (NASDAQ:GBDC) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, media sentiment, institutional ownership and valuation.

Ares Capital has a beta of 0.68, meaning that its stock price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Golub Capital BDC has a beta of 0.48, meaning that its stock price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Ares Capital has a net margin of 44.94% compared to Golub Capital BDC's net margin of 42.81%. Golub Capital BDC's return on equity of 10.87% beat Ares Capital's return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Ares Capital44.94% 10.48% 5.00%
Golub Capital BDC 42.81%10.87%4.87%

Ares Capital currently has a consensus price target of $22.63, indicating a potential upside of 12.67%. Golub Capital BDC has a consensus price target of $15.00, indicating a potential upside of 5.63%. Given Ares Capital's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Ares Capital is more favorable than Golub Capital BDC.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
Ares Capital
0 Sell rating(s)
2 Hold rating(s)
8 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.80
Golub Capital BDC
0 Sell rating(s)
2 Hold rating(s)
2 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.50

In the previous week, Ares Capital had 9 more articles in the media than Golub Capital BDC. MarketBeat recorded 15 mentions for Ares Capital and 6 mentions for Golub Capital BDC. Golub Capital BDC's average media sentiment score of 1.72 beat Ares Capital's score of 1.05 indicating that Golub Capital BDC is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
Ares Capital
9 Very Positive mention(s)
1 Positive mention(s)
3 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
1 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive
Golub Capital BDC
4 Very Positive mention(s)
0 Positive mention(s)
0 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Very Positive

Ares Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.6%. Golub Capital BDC pays an annual dividend of $1.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 11.0%. Ares Capital pays out 93.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Golub Capital BDC pays out 109.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Ares Capital has higher revenue and earnings than Golub Capital BDC. Ares Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Golub Capital BDC, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
Ares Capital$2.99B4.74$1.52B$2.059.80
Golub Capital BDC$724.68M5.22$273.79M$1.4210.00

27.4% of Ares Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 42.4% of Golub Capital BDC shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Ares Capital shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.6% of Golub Capital BDC shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Ares Capital beats Golub Capital BDC on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding ARCC and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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ARCC vs. The Competition

MetricAres CapitalFIN IndustryFinance SectorNASDAQ Exchange
Market Cap$14.16B$1.38B$12.76B$10.81B
Dividend Yield9.56%12.50%5.54%4.80%
P/E Ratio9.809.4821.9325.53
Price / Sales4.7435.0530.05133.12
Price / Cash9.119.6822.5761.86
Price / Book1.010.852.206.61
Net Income$1.52B$152.42M$1.02B$277.10M
7 Day Performance2.92%2.56%1.62%2.57%
1 Month Performance-2.33%-3.34%0.33%3.79%
1 Year Performance-6.95%-13.58%538.12%33.01%

Ares Capital Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
ARCC
Ares Capital
3.3835 of 5 stars
$20.08
+0.7%
$22.63
+12.7%
-7.3%$14.16B$2.99B9.802,550Positive News
Upcoming Earnings
GBDC
Golub Capital BDC
1.9855 of 5 stars
$14.05
-0.1%
$15.00
+6.8%
-8.7%$3.75B$724.68M9.89N/APositive News
Analyst Forecast
OCSL
Oaktree Specialty Lending
2.1439 of 5 stars
$13.88
+0.1%
$15.00
+8.1%
-14.0%$1.22B$381.67M24.79N/AAnalyst Forecast
EPD
Enterprise Products Partners
4.4683 of 5 stars
$31.03
+0.9%
$35.82
+15.4%
+6.8%$66.60B$56.22B11.537,800Positive News
Upcoming Earnings
Analyst Forecast
Options Volume
FSK
FS KKR Capital
3.3319 of 5 stars
$15.09
-0.2%
$17.75
+17.7%
-26.6%$0.00$1.72B19.34N/AAnalyst Downgrade
HTGC
Hercules Capital
3.2822 of 5 stars
$17.55
-1.0%
$20.42
+16.4%
-11.9%$3.22B$493.59M11.62100Upcoming Earnings
MAIN
Main Street Capital
1.8162 of 5 stars
$57.52
-0.8%
$60.40
+5.0%
+11.1%$5.18B$541.03M9.4890
OBDC
Blue Owl Capital
3.3851 of 5 stars
$12.97
+0.0%
$15.21
+17.3%
-14.2%$6.62B$1.60B8.59N/ATrending News
Analyst Downgrade
Short Interest ↑
Analyst Revision
TSLX
Sixth Street Specialty Lending
3.1192 of 5 stars
$21.85
-0.3%
$23.56
+7.8%
+8.3%$2.07B$482.53M10.87N/APositive News
Analyst Forecast
AMP
Ameriprise Financial
4.7892 of 5 stars
$472.46
-1.4%
$539.50
+14.2%
-4.8%$45.19B$17.26B14.7013,600Positive News
Upcoming Earnings
Analyst Forecast
STT
State Street
4.784 of 5 stars
$113.15
-1.1%
$125.42
+10.8%
+26.4%$32.44B$22.13B11.9753,000Earnings Report
Analyst Forecast

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This page (NASDAQ:ARCC) was last updated on 10/25/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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