Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Short Interest Down 11.5% in March

Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 16,090,000 shares, a drop of 11.5% from the March 15th total of 18,190,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 3,690,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.4 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ares Capital

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter worth $1,431,000. D.B. Root & Company LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the third quarter worth $1,260,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter worth $123,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in shares of Ares Capital by 29.8% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter worth $1,497,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have weighed in on ARCC shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $21.00 target price on shares of Ares Capital in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, 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 research note on Monday, January 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.80.

Ares Capital Stock Up 0.0 %

ARCC stock traded up $0.01 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $20.25. 1,823,786 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,662,836. The stock has a market cap of $12.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.58 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. Ares Capital has a fifty-two week low of $17.53 and a fifty-two week high of $20.86. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $20.28 and its 200 day moving average price is $19.93.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The investment management company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $669.78 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.68 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ares Capital will post 2.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.48%. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is 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.