Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Shares Sold by Legacy Capital Wealth Partners LLC

Legacy Capital Wealth Partners LLC cut its stake in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 3.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 77,363 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 2,620 shares during the quarter. Legacy Capital Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $1,550,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 411.0% in the third quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 1,952 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 1,570 shares during the last quarter. Activest Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 137.2% in the fourth quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 2,142 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 1,239 shares during the last quarter. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 59.3% in the fourth quarter. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC now owns 2,351 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CVA Family Office LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter worth about $51,000. 27.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price target on shares of Ares Capital in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Finally, B. Riley lowered shares of Ares Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $21.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.80.

Ares Capital Price Performance

ARCC traded up $0.15 on Friday, hitting $20.78. 2,640,447 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,468,332. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.24. The business’s fifty day moving average is $20.36 and its 200 day moving average is $20.02. Ares Capital Co. has a fifty-two week low of $17.53 and a fifty-two week high of $20.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.78 and a beta of 1.00.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The investment management company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $707.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $669.78 million. Ares Capital had a net margin of 58.22% and a return on equity of 12.50%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.68 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.24%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.91%.

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.