Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Shares Bought by PFG Investments LLC

PFG Investments LLC raised its holdings in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 92.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 19,222 shares of the investment management company’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,229 shares during the period. PFG Investments LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $400,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Confluence Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $86,227,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 1,865.8% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,214,991 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $844,260,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000,570 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in Ares Capital by 11.3% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 8,282,079 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $165,890,000 after buying an additional 840,823 shares during the last quarter. Melia Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ares Capital in the 4th quarter valued at about $13,992,000. Finally, Tudor Investment Corp Et Al acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the 3rd quarter worth about $11,952,000. 27.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Ares Capital Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ARCC traded down $0.20 on Tuesday, reaching $20.61. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,554,456 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,525,666. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.24. Ares Capital Co. has a 52-week low of $17.53 and a 52-week high of $20.94. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $20.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $20.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.72 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 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $707.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $669.78 million. Ares Capital had a return on equity of 12.50% and a net margin of 58.22%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.68 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.32%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.91%.

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.