Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) Earns “Market Outperform” Rating from JMP Securities

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

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. B. Riley downgraded Ares Capital from a buy rating to a neutral rating and set a $21.00 target price for the company. in a report on Monday, January 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $20.80.

Ares Capital Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of Ares Capital stock opened at $20.82 on Tuesday. 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 firm has a market cap of $12.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.80 and a beta of 0.99. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $20.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $19.83. Ares Capital has a fifty-two week low of $17.53 and a fifty-two week 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 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $707.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $669.78 million. Ares Capital had a return on equity of 12.50% and a net margin of 58.22%. The company’s revenue was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.68 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ares Capital will post 2.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ares Capital during the third quarter valued at $25,000. Nemes Rush Group LLC acquired a new position in Ares Capital during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its position in Ares Capital by 100.8% during the second quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,426 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 181,426 shares during the period. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC acquired a new position in Ares Capital during the third quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Pingora Partners LLC acquired a new position in Ares Capital during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. 27.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ares Capital Company 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.