Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) is Gilbert & Cook Inc.’s 6th Largest Position

Gilbert & Cook Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 6.7% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,514,588 shares of the investment management company’s stock after buying an additional 94,961 shares during the quarter. Ares Capital accounts for about 4.4% of Gilbert & Cook Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest position. Gilbert & Cook Inc.’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $31,715,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ARCC. Confluence Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 1.7% in the third quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 3,836,573 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $80,338,000 after purchasing an additional 63,999 shares during the last quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 151.4% in the second quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 45,698 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $952,000 after purchasing an additional 27,523 shares during the last quarter. Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 4.6% in the third quarter. Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 681,724 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $14,275,000 after purchasing an additional 29,786 shares during the last quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 32.5% in the third quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. now owns 211,797 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $4,435,000 after purchasing an additional 52,007 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brendel Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ares Capital in the third quarter worth $2,101,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com upgraded Ares Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. B. Riley boosted their price target on Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Compass Point raised Ares Capital to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. UBS Group raised Ares Capital to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, JMP Securities lifted their price objective on Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ares Capital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.86.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ARCC opened at $21.51 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $21.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $21.00. Ares Capital Co. has a 52-week low of $19.32 and a 52-week high of $22.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.90 billion, a PE ratio of 8.27 and a beta of 1.01.

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

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.93%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 73.85%.

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.