Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Shares Purchased by Foundations Investment Advisors LLC

Foundations Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 23.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 294,528 shares of the investment management company’s stock after acquiring an additional 55,561 shares during the quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $6,447,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 24.3% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 650,163 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $13,900,000 after purchasing an additional 127,219 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its position in Ares Capital by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 885,406 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $18,540,000 after acquiring an additional 38,559 shares during the period. CCLA Investment Management raised its stake in Ares Capital by 31.6% during the 4th quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 2,211,955 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $48,419,000 after acquiring an additional 531,305 shares in the last quarter. Romano Brothers AND Company raised its stake in Ares Capital by 11.2% during the 4th quarter. Romano Brothers AND Company now owns 354,237 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $7,754,000 after acquiring an additional 35,659 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Confluence Investment Management LLC boosted its position 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 worth $80,338,000 after acquiring an additional 63,999 shares during the period. 27.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ares Capital Trading Down 0.6 %

Ares Capital stock opened at $23.30 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $15.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.96 and a beta of 1.00. Ares Capital Co. has a 1 year low of $19.32 and a 1 year high of $23.53. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $22.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $21.39. 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 (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released 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). The firm had revenue of $755.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $770.45 million. Ares Capital had a return on equity of 12.06% and a net margin of 53.71%. The business’s revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.59 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were given a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.24%. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is 73.85%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ARCC has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Ares Capital from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ares Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, B. Riley increased their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.29.

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.