Acorn Creek Capital LLC Makes New $267,000 Investment in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Acorn Creek Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 12,217 shares of the investment management company’s stock, valued at approximately $267,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ARCC. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Ares Capital by 2,104.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,613,285 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $756,620,000 after buying an additional 3,449,395 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 8.3% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 12,656,154 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $272,107,000 after purchasing an additional 975,045 shares in the last quarter. CCLA Investment Management lifted its holdings in Ares Capital by 31.6% during the 4th quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 2,211,955 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $48,419,000 after buying an additional 531,305 shares in the last quarter. Partners Group Holding AG boosted its position in Ares Capital by 21.2% in the 3rd quarter. Partners Group Holding AG now owns 1,787,401 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $37,428,000 after buying an additional 312,255 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Financial Management Network Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the 3rd quarter valued at $4,018,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Ares Capital Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of ARCC stock opened at $23.30 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $15.05 billion, a PE ratio of 8.96 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. Ares Capital Co. has a 12-month low of $19.32 and a 12-month high of $23.53. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $22.15 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $21.39.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The investment management company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.59 by ($0.01). Ares Capital had a net margin of 53.71% and a return on equity of 12.06%. The business had revenue of $755.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $770.45 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.59 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.24%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 73.85%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on ARCC. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Ares Capital from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. B. Riley increased their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ares Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.29.

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.