Perennial Advisors LLC Grows Stock Position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Perennial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 8.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 207,390 shares of the investment management company’s stock after buying an additional 16,350 shares during the period. Perennial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $4,596,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Montag & Caldwell LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Promus Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter worth $48,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Ares Capital in the fourth quarter valued at $60,000. Finally, Montag A & Associates Inc. lifted its position in Ares Capital by 92.6% during the fourth quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 2,889 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 1,389 shares during the period. 27.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada decreased 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. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. 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. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of 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, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $24.50 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.00.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

Shares of ARCC stock opened at $22.19 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $21.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $21.94. Ares Capital Co. has a 52 week low of $18.26 and a 52 week high of $23.84. 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 $15.40 billion, a PE ratio of 9.06 and a beta of 0.68.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released 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 firm had revenue of $599.00 million for 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%. Ares Capital’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.59 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. 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.