Mutual Advisors LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Mutual Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 3.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 171,559 shares of the investment management company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,184 shares during the period. Mutual Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $3,946,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 2,104.7% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,613,285 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $756,620,000 after purchasing an additional 3,449,395 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in Ares Capital by 8.3% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 12,656,154 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $272,107,000 after buying an additional 975,045 shares during the last quarter. CCLA Investment Management lifted its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 31.6% in the 4th quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 2,211,955 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $48,419,000 after acquiring an additional 531,305 shares during the period. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the second quarter valued at about $9,815,000. Finally, Partners Group Holding AG increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 21.2% during the third quarter. Partners Group Holding AG now owns 1,787,401 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $37,428,000 after acquiring an additional 312,255 shares during the period. 27.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ares Capital Price Performance

Ares Capital stock opened at $23.38 on Friday. Ares Capital Co. has a fifty-two week low of $19.32 and a fifty-two week high of $23.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.99 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $22.08 and its two-hundred day moving average is $21.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.29.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The investment management company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $755.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $770.45 million. Ares Capital had a net margin of 53.71% and a return on equity of 12.06%. Ares Capital’s revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.59 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were given a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.21%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 73.85%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ARCC has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. B. Riley lifted their price objective on Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com upgraded Ares Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised Ares Capital from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ares Capital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.29.

Ares Capital 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.