Eagle Bay Advisors LLC Grows Stake in Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Eagle Bay Advisors LLC raised its stake in Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 2.9% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 90,532 shares of the investment management company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,551 shares during the quarter. Ares Capital accounts for about 1.7% of Eagle Bay Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $2,006,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Montag & Caldwell LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. Continuum Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 320.7% during the first quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 1,628 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 1,241 shares in the last quarter. PSI Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 121.1% during the first quarter. PSI Advisors LLC now owns 2,100 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 1,150 shares in the last quarter. Archer Investment Corp grew its stake in Ares Capital by 281.3% in the first quarter. Archer Investment Corp now owns 2,440 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $54,000 after purchasing an additional 1,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton grew its stake in Ares Capital by 137.6% in the first quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 2,704 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 1,566 shares in the last quarter. 27.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ARCC has been the subject of a number of research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 27th. B. Riley upgraded Ares Capital to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Ares Capital from $24.50 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on Ares Capital from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.21.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

Shares of ARCC stock opened at $23.21 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The business has a 50 day moving average of $22.04 and a two-hundred day moving average of $22.01. Ares Capital Corporation has a 52 week low of $18.26 and a 52 week high of $23.84. The company has a market cap of $16.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.32 and a beta of 0.67.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The investment management company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by ($0.04). Ares Capital had a net margin of 43.50% and a return on equity of 11.05%. The company had revenue of $599.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $769.32 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.59 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ares Capital Corporation will post 2.19 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th were paid a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.27%. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is currently 93.66%.

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.