Lane & Associates LLC Acquires New Position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Lane & Associates LLC bought a new position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 8,891 shares of the investment management company’s stock, valued at approximately $210,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ARCC. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 2,104.7% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,613,285 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $756,620,000 after acquiring an additional 3,449,395 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in Ares Capital by 11.8% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 14,145,706 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $309,649,000 after purchasing an additional 1,489,552 shares during the last quarter. CCLA Investment Management increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 31.6% in the fourth quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 2,211,955 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $48,419,000 after purchasing an additional 531,305 shares during the period. Columbus Macro LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $8,870,000. Finally, Vista Finance LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter worth approximately $8,413,000. 27.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on ARCC shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com downgraded Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, B. Riley lifted their target price on Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.94.

Ares Capital Stock Down 0.3 %

ARCC opened at $23.40 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $15.71 billion, a PE ratio of 9.55 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a 50-day moving average of $22.58 and a 200-day moving average of $21.67. Ares Capital Co. has a fifty-two week low of $19.32 and a fifty-two week high of $23.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 1.21.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The investment management company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.03). Ares Capital had a net margin of 50.90% and a return on equity of 11.54%. Equities research analysts forecast that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.21%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is 78.37%.

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.