Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Shares Purchased by IFP Advisors Inc

IFP Advisors Inc boosted its position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 8.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 21,429 shares of the investment management company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,646 shares during the period. IFP Advisors Inc’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $469,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ARCC. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in Ares Capital by 56.8% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,510 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 909 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Ares Capital by 2.3% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 31,635 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $661,000 after buying an additional 712 shares in the last quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management increased its holdings in Ares Capital by 7.0% in the third quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 18,463 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $387,000 after buying an additional 1,200 shares in the last quarter. Stephens Inc. AR increased its holdings in Ares Capital by 4.9% in the third quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 1,111,423 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $23,273,000 after buying an additional 51,468 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Values Added Financial LLC purchased a new position in Ares Capital in the third quarter valued at about $276,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ARCC has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Raymond James cut shares of Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.94.

Ares Capital Stock Up 1.1 %

ARCC stock opened at $23.38 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.54 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a current ratio of 1.21. Ares Capital Co. has a one year low of $19.32 and a one year high of $23.84. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $22.81 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $21.79.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The investment management company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.03). Ares Capital had a return on equity of 11.54% and a net margin of 50.90%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.21%. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is currently 78.37%.

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.