Syon Capital LLC Buys Shares of 28,350 Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Syon Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 28,350 shares of the investment management company’s stock, valued at approximately $568,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital in the 4th quarter valued at $1,431,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital in the 4th quarter valued at $1,497,000. D.B. Root & Company LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,260,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital in the 4th quarter valued at $123,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 29.8% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 241,231 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $4,697,000 after buying an additional 55,386 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Ares Capital Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of Ares Capital stock traded up $0.15 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $20.78. 2,639,645 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,547,033. The company has a 50 day moving average of $20.35 and a two-hundred day moving average of $20.00. Ares Capital Co. has a fifty-two week low of $17.53 and a fifty-two week 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. The stock has a market cap of $12.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.73 and a beta of 1.00.

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

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $21.00 price target on shares of Ares Capital in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Finally, B. Riley lowered 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 note on Monday, January 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.80.

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.