SlateStone Wealth LLC Lowers Stake in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

SlateStone Wealth LLC lessened its stake in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 4.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 217,066 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 11,160 shares during the quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $4,752,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings 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 in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 3.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,387,097 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $70,926,000 after buying an additional 104,710 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ares Capital in the fourth quarter worth $58,159,000. Sound Income Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,314,269 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $50,659,000 after buying an additional 96,992 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CCLA Investment Management lifted its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 31.6% in the fourth quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 2,211,955 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $48,419,000 after buying an additional 531,305 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on ARCC shares. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Raymond James downgraded shares of Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ares Capital currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.94.

Ares Capital Trading Down 0.7 %

NASDAQ ARCC opened at $21.28 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $22.88 and its 200-day moving average price is $21.90. 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 stock has a market cap of $14.50 billion, a PE ratio of 8.69 and a beta of 1.00. Ares Capital Co. has a 12 month low of $19.32 and a 12 month high of $23.84.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted 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 research analysts forecast that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.48 dividend. 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 (DPR) is presently 78.37%.

Ares Capital 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.