Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Shares Sold by D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc.

D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. reduced its position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 15.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 199,872 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 37,816 shares during the quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $4,375,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in Ares Capital in the 4th quarter valued at $519,000. Round Rock Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ares Capital in the 4th quarter valued at $1,512,000. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 507,374 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $11,208,000 after acquiring an additional 25,347 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 43,056 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $942,000 after acquiring an additional 1,945 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Romano Brothers AND Company increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 11.2% in the 4th quarter. Romano Brothers AND Company now owns 354,237 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $7,754,000 after acquiring an additional 35,659 shares during the last quarter. 27.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have issued reports on ARCC shares. Raymond James downgraded Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price 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. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. UBS Group cut 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 Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ares Capital has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.00.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

NASDAQ ARCC opened at $21.91 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $21.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.90. Ares Capital Co. has a twelve month low of $18.26 and a twelve month high of $23.84. The stock has a market cap of $15.11 billion, a PE ratio of 8.94 and a beta of 0.70. 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 (NASDAQ:ARCC) last announced 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 50.90% and a return on equity of 11.54%. The firm had revenue of $599.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $769.32 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.59 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.