Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) Reaches New 1-Year High at $20.86

Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $20.86 and last traded at $20.82, with a volume of 7385573 shares. The stock had previously closed at $20.48.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $21.00 target price on shares of Ares Capital in a report on Tuesday. Finally, B. Riley lowered shares of Ares Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $21.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, January 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.80.

Ares Capital Trading Up 1.7 %

The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.79 and a beta of 0.99. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $20.24 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $19.83.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The investment management company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.03. Ares Capital had a net margin of 58.22% and a return on equity of 12.50%. The firm had revenue of $707.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $669.78 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.68 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be paid a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 14th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 71.91%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ares Capital

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ARCC. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the third quarter worth about $25,000. Nemes Rush Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its position in shares of Ares Capital by 100.8% during the second quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,426 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 181,426 shares in the last quarter. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the third quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, Pingora Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. 27.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.