Whitener Capital Management Inc. Has $648,000 Position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Whitener Capital Management Inc. decreased its position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 4.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 29,586 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 1,225 shares during the quarter. Whitener Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $648,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 24.3% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 650,163 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $13,900,000 after buying an additional 127,219 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Ares Capital by 4.6% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 885,406 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $18,540,000 after purchasing an additional 38,559 shares during the last quarter. CCLA Investment Management increased its holdings in Ares Capital by 31.6% during the fourth quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 2,211,955 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $48,419,000 after buying an additional 531,305 shares during the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 3,836,573 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $80,338,000 after purchasing an additional 63,999 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in shares of Ares Capital by 25.1% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 222,101 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $4,651,000 after acquiring an additional 44,548 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Ares Capital Price Performance

ARCC stock opened at $23.18 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $21.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $21.29. Ares Capital Co. has a 12-month low of $19.32 and a 12-month high of $23.22. The company has a market capitalization of $14.98 billion, a PE ratio of 8.92 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The investment management company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.59 by ($0.01). Ares Capital had a net margin of 53.71% and a return on equity of 12.06%. The business had revenue of $755.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $770.45 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.59 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.36 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 73.85%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

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.