Brokerages Set Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) PT at $20.80

Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the four ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $20.80.

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $21.00 target price on shares of Ares Capital in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. B. Riley downgraded shares of Ares Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $21.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price 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.

Ares Capital Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Ares Capital stock opened at $20.66 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $19.98. The company has a market cap of $12.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.74 and a beta of 1.00. Ares Capital has a 12-month low of $17.53 and a 12-month high of $20.86.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 7th. The investment management company reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $707.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $669.78 million. Ares Capital had a net margin of 58.22% and a return on equity of 12.50%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.68 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Ares Capital will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.29%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is 71.91%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ares Capital

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc bought a new position in Ares Capital in the 4th quarter worth about $1,431,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC bought a new position in Ares Capital in the 4th quarter worth about $1,497,000. D.B. Root & Company LLC bought a new position in Ares Capital in the 3rd quarter worth about $1,260,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Ares Capital in the 4th quarter worth about $123,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Ares Capital by 29.8% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 241,231 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $4,697,000 after purchasing an additional 55,386 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

About Ares Capital

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.