OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp Decreases Stake in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp decreased its holdings in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 29.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,355,127 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 561,265 shares during the quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $29,664,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of ARCC. Obermeyer Wealth Partners boosted its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 12.1% in the fourth quarter. Obermeyer Wealth Partners now owns 174,913 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $3,829,000 after buying an additional 18,898 shares in the last quarter. McGowan Group Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ares Capital by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. McGowan Group Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,042,586 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $22,822,000 after buying an additional 3,907 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Ares Capital by 31.6% during the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 31,400 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $687,000 after purchasing an additional 7,547 shares during the last quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC lifted its position in shares of Ares Capital by 31.9% during the fourth quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC now owns 24,608 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $547,000 after purchasing an additional 5,957 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth acquired a new position in Ares Capital in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,260,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Ares Capital from $24.50 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Raymond James cut shares of Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 28th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Ares Capital from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ares Capital currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.00.

Ares Capital Stock Up 2.5%

ARCC opened at $21.59 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03. Ares Capital Co. has a 12 month low of $18.26 and a 12 month high of $23.84. The company has a market cap of $14.89 billion, a PE ratio of 8.81 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a 50 day moving average of $21.09 and a 200 day moving average of $21.89.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The investment management company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.54 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $599.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $769.32 million. Ares Capital had a net margin of 50.90% and a return on equity of 11.54%. Ares Capital’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.59 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be given a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 93.66%.

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.