Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Shares Sold by Albion Financial Group UT

Albion Financial Group UT lowered its holdings in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 5.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 92,910 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 5,440 shares during the quarter. Albion Financial Group UT’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $2,034,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 24.3% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 650,163 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $13,900,000 after purchasing an additional 127,219 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 885,406 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $18,540,000 after acquiring an additional 38,559 shares in the last quarter. CCLA Investment Management grew its position in shares of 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 valued at $48,419,000 after acquiring an additional 531,305 shares during the period. Romano Brothers AND Company increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 11.2% in the 4th quarter. Romano Brothers AND Company now owns 354,237 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $7,754,000 after purchasing an additional 35,659 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Confluence Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Ares Capital by 1.7% during the third quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 3,836,573 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $80,338,000 after purchasing an additional 63,999 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Ares Capital Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of ARCC stock opened at $23.37 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $22.01 and its 200 day moving average price is $21.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.10 billion, a PE ratio of 8.99 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.29. Ares Capital Co. has a 1-year low of $19.32 and a 1-year high of $23.44.

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

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.22%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 73.85%.

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.