Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Shares Sold by Webster Bank N. A.

Webster Bank N. A. lowered its holdings in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 7.7% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 14,802 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 1,230 shares during the period. Webster Bank N. A.’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $310,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Confluence Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the first quarter valued at approximately $86,227,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Ares Capital by 20.2% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 11,681,109 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $243,434,000 after buying an additional 1,961,166 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its stake in Ares Capital by 143.9% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 820,390 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $17,081,000 after buying an additional 484,088 shares during the last quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ares Capital during the second quarter worth $9,815,000. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in Ares Capital by 52.7% during the first quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,354,097 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $28,192,000 after buying an additional 467,535 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a research note on Monday, August 5th. JMP Securities lifted their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. UBS Group raised shares of Ares Capital to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Compass Point raised shares of Ares Capital to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.71.

Ares Capital Stock Up 0.9 %

ARCC opened at $21.32 on Monday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $20.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $20.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.40. Ares Capital Co. has a one year low of $18.55 and a one year high of $21.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.30 and a beta of 1.01.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The investment management company reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $755.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $714.27 million. Ares Capital had a net margin of 59.76% and a return on equity of 12.24%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.58 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.39 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.75%.

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.