Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 2,656,928 shares of the investment management company's stock, valued at approximately $58,159,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned approximately 0.40% of Ares Capital as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 11.8% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 14,145,706 shares of the investment management company's stock worth $309,649,000 after buying an additional 1,489,552 shares during the last quarter. CCLA Investment Management boosted 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 valued at $48,419,000 after acquiring an additional 531,305 shares during the period. Columbus Macro LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the fourth quarter valued at about $8,870,000. Vista Finance LLC bought a new position in shares of Ares Capital in the fourth quarter worth about $8,413,000. Finally, LGT Group Foundation acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the 4th quarter worth about $8,397,000. 27.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of brokerages have recently commented on ARCC. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ares Capital from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.50 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $22.94.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on Ares Capital
Ares Capital Price Performance
ARCC stock traded up $0.32 during trading on Friday, hitting $21.28. 5,263,515 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,690,325. The stock has a market cap of $14.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.69 and a beta of 1.00. Ares Capital Co. has a one year low of $19.32 and a one year high of $23.84. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $22.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $21.89.
Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 11.54% and a net margin of 50.90%. Equities analysts expect that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Ares Capital Announces Dividend
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.02%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Ares Capital's dividend payout ratio is currently 78.37%.
Ares Capital Profile
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Free Report)
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.
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