Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Short Interest Up 5.2% in April

Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 16,930,000 shares, a growth of 5.2% from the March 31st total of 16,090,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 3,610,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.7 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on ARCC. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $21.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, B. Riley cut Ares Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $21.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ares Capital currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.80.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

Shares of ARCC stock opened at $20.85 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.81 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.24. The business has a fifty day moving average of $20.38 and a 200 day moving average of $20.05. Ares Capital has a 1 year low of $17.53 and a 1 year high of $21.00.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The investment management company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $701.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $703.85 million. Ares Capital had a return on equity of 12.50% and a net margin of 58.22%. The business’s revenue was up 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.56 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Ares Capital will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.21%. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is currently 71.91%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ares Capital

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc purchased a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,431,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,497,000. D.B. Root & Company LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,260,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the 4th quarter valued at about $123,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in shares of Ares Capital by 29.8% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 241,231 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $4,697,000 after acquiring an additional 55,386 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

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.