Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Shares Sold by Vista Investment Management

Vista Investment Management decreased its holdings in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 9.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,549 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 1,480 shares during the quarter. Vista Investment Management’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $297,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ARCC. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 11.8% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 14,145,706 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $309,649,000 after buying an additional 1,489,552 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 12.3% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 7,951,926 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $174,068,000 after buying an additional 871,370 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 26.0% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,268,547 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $93,439,000 after buying an additional 881,450 shares in the last quarter. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the fourth quarter valued at $84,426,000. Finally, Advisors Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 3,523,651 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $77,133,000 after buying an additional 105,526 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Ares Capital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ARCC opened at $21.91 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $15.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.94 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 1.21. The business has a 50-day moving average of $21.04 and a two-hundred day moving average of $21.91. Ares Capital Co. has a 1 year low of $18.26 and a 1 year high of $23.84.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The investment management company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $599.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $769.32 million. Ares Capital had a return on equity of 11.54% and a net margin of 50.90%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.59 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.76%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is currently 93.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James cut Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Ares Capital from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. StockNews.com cut Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.00.

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.