Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. Grows Position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 5.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 428,184 shares of the investment management company’s stock after purchasing an additional 22,755 shares during the quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. owned about 0.07% of Ares Capital worth $8,966,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 8.3% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 12,656,154 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $272,107,000 after purchasing an additional 975,045 shares during the period. Confluence Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ares Capital by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 3,836,573 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $80,338,000 after acquiring an additional 63,999 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ares Capital by 2,104.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,613,285 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $756,620,000 after acquiring an additional 3,449,395 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Ares Capital by 8.5% during the 2nd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 3,492,247 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $72,778,000 after acquiring an additional 273,025 shares during the period. Finally, Sound Income Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in Ares Capital by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,217,277 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $46,430,000 after acquiring an additional 79,074 shares during the period. 27.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. B. Riley raised their target price on Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. JMP Securities raised their target price on Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Compass Point upgraded Ares Capital to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of Ares Capital in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, UBS Group raised Ares Capital to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Four equities 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ares Capital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.86.

Ares Capital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ARCC opened at $22.02 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.29. Ares Capital Co. has a fifty-two week low of $19.32 and a fifty-two week high of $22.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.23 billion, a PE ratio of 8.47 and a beta of 1.01. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $21.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $21.04.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The investment management company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.59 by ($0.01). Ares Capital had a return on equity of 12.06% and a net margin of 53.71%. The business had revenue of $755.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $770.45 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.59 EPS. Ares Capital’s revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 73.85%.

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.