Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Shares Purchased by LGT Capital Partners LTD.

LGT Capital Partners LTD. grew its holdings in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 6.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 667,500 shares of the investment management company’s stock after buying an additional 37,500 shares during the period. LGT Capital Partners LTD.’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $13,370,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ARCC. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of Ares Capital by 10.5% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 7,441,256 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $144,881,000 after buying an additional 708,568 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in Ares Capital by 7.5% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,880,360 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $70,818,000 after purchasing an additional 271,811 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in Ares Capital by 6.3% in the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,806,105 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $70,280,000 after acquiring an additional 224,553 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its position in shares of Ares Capital by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,116,400 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $56,952,000 after buying an additional 14,600 shares during the period. Finally, Advisors Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 3,043,209 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $59,251,000 after purchasing an additional 23,276 shares during the last quarter. 27.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ARCC. B. Riley cut 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. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.80.

Ares Capital Price Performance

ARCC stock opened at $20.82 on Friday. Ares Capital Co. has a 12 month low of $17.53 and a 12 month high of $20.86. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $20.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $19.83. The firm has a market cap of $12.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.80 and a beta of 0.99.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last announced its 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. The company had revenue of $707.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $669.78 million. Ares Capital had a net margin of 58.22% and a return on equity of 12.50%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.68 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

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