Brokerages Set Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) PT at $21.50

Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seven brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $21.50.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ARCC. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Ares Capital from $21.50 to $22.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of Ares Capital in a research report on Thursday, May 23rd. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Confluence Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Ares Capital in the first quarter worth about $86,227,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Ares Capital by 1,865.8% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,214,991 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $844,260,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000,570 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in Ares Capital by 17.4% during the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 9,719,943 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $202,369,000 after buying an additional 1,437,864 shares during the last quarter. Melia Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Ares Capital in the fourth quarter worth $13,992,000. Finally, Tudor Investment Corp Et Al bought a new stake in Ares Capital in the third quarter valued at $11,952,000. 27.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

Ares Capital stock opened at $20.68 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.71 billion, a PE ratio of 7.08 and a beta of 1.00. Ares Capital has a one year low of $18.00 and a one year high of $21.84. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $20.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $20.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a current ratio of 1.63.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The investment management company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by ($0.01). Ares Capital had a return on equity of 12.37% and a net margin of 62.77%. The firm had revenue of $701.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $703.85 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ares Capital will post 2.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.28%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 65.75%.

About Ares Capital

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.