Trueblood Wealth Management LLC Acquires New Stake in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Trueblood Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 16,731 shares of the investment management company’s stock, valued at approximately $335,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc purchased a new stake in Ares Capital during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,431,000. D.B. Root & Company LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,260,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the 4th quarter worth approximately $123,000. 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 worth $4,697,000 after acquiring an additional 55,386 shares during the period. Finally, Seven Eight Capital LP acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $278,000. 27.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Ares Capital Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ARCC traded up $0.34 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $20.82. 7,385,690 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,856,349. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.24. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $20.24 and its 200-day moving average price is $19.83. The firm has a market cap of $12.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.79 and a beta of 0.99. Ares Capital Co. has a twelve month low of $17.53 and a twelve month high of $20.86.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 7th. The investment management company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.03. Ares Capital had a return on equity of 12.50% and a net margin of 58.22%. The company 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. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.34 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.22%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.91%.

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.