Sigma Planning Corp Has $1.93 Million Stock Position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Sigma Planning Corp lowered its position in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 45.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 96,096 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 78,593 shares during the quarter. Sigma Planning Corp’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $1,925,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Ares Capital in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its position in Ares Capital by 100.8% in the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,426 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 181,426 shares in the last quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. increased its position in Ares Capital by 411.0% in the 3rd quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 1,952 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 1,570 shares in the last quarter. Activest Wealth Management increased its position in Ares Capital by 137.2% in the 4th quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 2,142 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 1,239 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC grew its position in shares of Ares Capital by 59.3% during the 4th quarter. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC now owns 2,351 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 875 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Ares Capital Stock Up 0.8 %

Ares Capital stock opened at $20.59 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $20.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $19.97. Ares Capital Co. has a fifty-two week low of $17.53 and a fifty-two week high of $20.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.71 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.24.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The investment management company reported $0.63 earnings per share 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $669.78 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.68 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.32%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.91%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.