Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by JMP Securities

JMP Securities reissued their market outperform rating on shares of Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) in a report published on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $21.00 target price on the investment management company’s stock.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. B. Riley downgraded shares of Ares Capital from a buy rating to a neutral rating and set a $21.00 price objective for the company. in a research report 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 data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $20.80.

Ares Capital Stock Up 1.7 %

ARCC stock opened at $20.82 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $20.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $19.84. Ares Capital has a 12 month low of $17.53 and a 12 month high of $20.86. The company has a market cap of $12.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.80 and a beta of 0.99. 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 (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The investment management company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.03. Ares Capital had a net margin of 58.22% and a return on equity of 12.50%. The firm had revenue of $707.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $669.78 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.68 EPS. Ares Capital’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Ares Capital will post 2.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.22%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.91%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ares Capital

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the 4th quarter worth about $1,431,000. D.B. Root & Company LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the third quarter worth approximately $1,260,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the fourth quarter worth approximately $123,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of Ares Capital by 29.8% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 241,231 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $4,697,000 after acquiring an additional 55,386 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Seven Eight Capital LP acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the third quarter worth approximately $278,000. 27.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.