Sfmg LLC Raises Stake in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Sfmg LLC lifted its position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 398,112 shares of the investment management company’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,080 shares during the period. Ares Capital comprises 0.7% of Sfmg LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Sfmg LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $7,974,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in Ares Capital by 10.5% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Ares Capital by 1,865.8% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,214,991 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $844,260,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000,570 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in Ares Capital by 7.5% during the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,880,360 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $70,818,000 after purchasing an additional 271,811 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in Ares Capital by 6.3% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,806,105 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $70,280,000 after purchasing an additional 224,553 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its stake in Ares Capital by 0.5% in 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 purchasing an additional 14,600 shares during the period. 27.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ARCC. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, B. Riley cut shares of Ares Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $21.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ares Capital currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.80.

Ares Capital Price Performance

ARCC stock traded up $0.05 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $20.29. 681,689 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,643,723. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $20.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $19.93. Ares Capital Co. has a 52 week low of $17.53 and a 52 week high of $20.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.58 and a beta of 1.00.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 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 last year, the firm earned $0.68 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.91%.

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.