Ares Capital Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders bought 27,969 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 370% compared to the average volume of 5,947 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Truist Financial Corp increased its position in Ares Capital by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 144,139 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $3,155,000 after acquiring an additional 8,892 shares during the last quarter. 5T Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Ares Capital in the 4th quarter worth about $449,000. Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its stake in Ares Capital by 72.2% in the 4th quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 589,640 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $12,907,000 after buying an additional 247,245 shares during the period. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Ares Capital by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 56,182 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $1,230,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the period. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in Ares Capital in the 4th quarter worth about $2,289,000. Institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on ARCC shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. B. Riley boosted their price target 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. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ares Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.43.

Ares Capital Trading Up 1.3 %

ARCC stock traded up $0.31 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $23.73. 1,876,995 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,923,037. 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 has a one year low of $19.32 and a one year high of $23.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.33 billion, a PE ratio of 9.13 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $22.25 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $21.43.

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

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.