Moors & Cabot Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Moors & Cabot Inc. cut its stake in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 5.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 31,667 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 1,797 shares during the quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc.’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $693,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Horizon Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Promus Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Ares Capital in the fourth quarter valued at $48,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ares Capital in the fourth quarter valued at $60,000. Montag A & Associates Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 92.6% during the 4th quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 2,889 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 1,389 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ares Capital by 200.0% in the 4th quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 3,000 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $66,000 after buying an additional 2,000 shares in the last quarter. 27.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ARCC has been the subject of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Raymond James downgraded Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced 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 report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped 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. One research 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 company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.94.

Ares Capital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ARCC opened at $21.28 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $22.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.89. Ares Capital Co. has a 52 week low of $19.32 and a 52 week high of $23.84. The company has a market cap of $14.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.69 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The investment management company reported $0.55 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 year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.02%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 78.37%.

About Ares Capital

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.