Whipplewood Advisors LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Ares Capital Corporation $ARCC

Whipplewood Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 1,036,600.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 41,468 shares of the investment management company’s stock after buying an additional 41,464 shares during the quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $911,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. MQS Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the second quarter worth about $403,000. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 13.9% during the second quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 61,023 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $1,340,000 after buying an additional 7,434 shares during the last quarter. BIP Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 5.5% during the second quarter. BIP Wealth LLC now owns 26,829 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $589,000 after buying an additional 1,396 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 54.4% during the second quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 21,476 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $472,000 after buying an additional 7,571 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CNB Bank purchased a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the second quarter worth about $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ARCC. JMP Securities set a $23.00 price objective on Ares Capital and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Ares Capital from $22.50 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Capital One Financial set a $22.50 price objective on Ares Capital in a report on Friday, October 10th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, B. Riley raised Ares Capital from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $22.50 to $23.50 in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ares Capital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.63.

Ares Capital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ARCC opened at $20.08 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $21.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $21.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.80 and a beta of 0.68. Ares Capital Corporation has a 12 month low of $18.26 and a 12 month high of $23.84.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The investment management company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $614.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $748.76 million. Ares Capital had a net margin of 44.94% and a return on equity of 10.48%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.61 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ares Capital Corporation will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th were issued a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 15th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.6%. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is 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.