Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Shares Bought by Fiduciary Group LLC

Fiduciary Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 12.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,550 shares of the investment management company’s stock after buying an additional 1,700 shares during the quarter. Fiduciary Group LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $324,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ARCC. Confluence Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Ares Capital during the 1st quarter worth approximately $86,227,000. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted 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 purchasing an additional 1,961,166 shares during the last quarter. Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. boosted its holdings in Ares Capital by 4,876.0% in the first quarter. Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 574,978 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $11,971,000 after purchasing an additional 563,423 shares during the period. Edge Capital Group LLC increased its stake in Ares Capital by 2,057.7% during the fourth quarter. Edge Capital Group LLC now owns 526,258 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $10,541,000 after purchasing an additional 501,868 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 484,088 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Ares Capital Stock Performance

ARCC stock opened at $20.37 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $20.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $20.77. The company has a market capitalization of $12.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.98 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. Ares Capital Co. has a fifty-two week low of $18.55 and a fifty-two week high of $21.84.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The investment management company reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.03. Ares Capital had a net margin of 59.76% and a return on equity of 12.24%. The company had revenue of $755.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $714.27 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.58 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be given a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.43%. The ex-dividend date is 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.