Argent Trust Co Acquires 4,096 Shares of Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Argent Trust Co lifted its holdings in shares of Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 3.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 125,077 shares of the investment management company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,096 shares during the quarter. Argent Trust Co’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $2,772,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Two Sigma Investments LP lifted its holdings in Ares Capital by 81.0% in the fourth quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 2,678,525 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $58,633,000 after acquiring an additional 1,198,580 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 871,370 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its holdings in Ares Capital by 189.6% in the fourth quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 1,302,501 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $28,512,000 after acquiring an additional 852,801 shares during the period. CCLA Investment Management lifted its holdings in Ares Capital by 26.5% in the first quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 2,799,023 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $62,026,000 after acquiring an additional 587,068 shares during the period. Finally, Spinnaker Trust bought a new position in Ares Capital in the first quarter valued at about $11,390,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on ARCC shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Ares Capital from $24.50 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. JMP Securities set a $23.00 target price on Ares Capital and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. B. Riley upgraded Ares Capital from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $22.50 to $23.50 in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ares Capital presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.86.

Ares Capital Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:ARCC opened at $22.39 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.92 and a beta of 0.70. Ares Capital Corporation has a 1-year low of $18.26 and a 1-year high of $23.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.14. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $22.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $22.04.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The investment management company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $614.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $748.76 million. Ares Capital had a return on equity of 10.48% and a net margin of 44.94%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.61 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Ares Capital Corporation will post 2.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be given a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.6%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 15th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 93.66%.

Ares Capital Profile

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.