Grove Bank & Trust Purchases 4,588 Shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Grove Bank & Trust increased its position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 565.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,400 shares of the investment management company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,588 shares during the quarter. Grove Bank & Trust’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $113,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of Ares Capital by 20.2% in the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 11,681,109 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $243,434,000 after acquiring an additional 1,961,166 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of Ares Capital by 8.5% in the second quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 3,492,247 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $72,778,000 after acquiring an additional 273,025 shares during the period. Advisors Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Ares Capital by 7.8% in the first quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 3,099,134 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $64,524,000 after acquiring an additional 223,245 shares during the period. Sound Income Strategies LLC boosted its position in shares of Ares Capital by 3.7% in the third quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,217,277 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $46,430,000 after acquiring an additional 79,074 shares during the period. Finally, Progeny 3 Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ares Capital by 4.7% in the second quarter. Progeny 3 Inc. now owns 1,983,594 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $41,338,000 after acquiring an additional 88,353 shares during the period. 27.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on ARCC. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Compass Point upgraded shares of Ares Capital to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. JMP Securities lifted their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Ares Capital to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ares Capital presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.71.

Ares Capital Trading Up 0.3 %

ARCC stock opened at $21.38 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $13.14 billion, a PE ratio of 7.32 and a beta of 1.01. Ares Capital Co. has a one year low of $18.55 and a one year high of $21.84. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $20.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $20.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.40.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The investment management company reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $755.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $714.27 million. Ares Capital had a net margin of 59.76% and a return on equity of 12.24%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.58 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.98%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.75%.

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.