Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the four brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $20.80.

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on ARCC shares. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price target on shares of Ares Capital in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. B. Riley cut shares of Ares Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $21.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

Shares of ARCC stock opened at $20.79 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $12.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.79 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $20.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $20.00. Ares Capital has a 12-month low of $17.53 and a 12-month high of $20.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The investment management company reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $707.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $669.78 million. Ares Capital had a return on equity of 12.50% and a net margin of 58.22%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.68 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ares Capital will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.24%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.91%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ARCC. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Ares Capital by 3.1% in the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 854,650 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $17,794,000 after acquiring an additional 25,871 shares during the period. Activest Wealth Management grew its stake in Ares Capital by 594.8% in the 1st quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 14,882 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $310,000 after acquiring an additional 12,740 shares during the period. Essex Financial Services Inc. grew its stake in Ares Capital by 12.2% in the 1st quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc. now owns 70,951 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $1,477,000 after acquiring an additional 7,721 shares during the period. Bell Bank grew its stake in Ares Capital by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Bell Bank now owns 489,632 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $10,194,000 after acquiring an additional 8,394 shares during the period. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its stake in Ares Capital by 4.7% in the 1st quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 16,855 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $351,000 after acquiring an additional 756 shares during the period. 27.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.