Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Shares Sold by Global Retirement Partners LLC

Global Retirement Partners LLC lessened its stake in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 45.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 26,715 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 22,191 shares during the quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $585,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ARCC. Horizon Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 56.8% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,510 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 909 shares in the last quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 92.6% in the 4th quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 2,889 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $63,000 after purchasing an additional 1,389 shares in the last quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 200.0% in the 4th quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 3,000 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $66,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the 3rd quarter valued at about $67,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Raymond James downgraded shares of Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.94.

Ares Capital Price Performance

NASDAQ ARCC opened at $23.30 on Friday. Ares Capital Co. has a 52 week low of $19.32 and a 52 week high of $23.84. 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 $15.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.51 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $22.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $21.70.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The investment management company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.03). Ares Capital had a return on equity of 11.54% and a net margin of 50.90%. Analysts forecast that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 8.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.