Raymond James Financial Inc. Purchases 63,082 Shares of Ares Capital Corporation $ARCC

Raymond James Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 2.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,720,010 shares of the investment management company’s stock after acquiring an additional 63,082 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned 0.39% of Ares Capital worth $60,275,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cresset Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Ares Capital by 7.2% during the 1st quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 59,458 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $1,318,000 after acquiring an additional 3,970 shares during the period. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in Ares Capital by 828.2% during the 1st quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 236,052 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $5,231,000 after acquiring an additional 210,622 shares during the period. Aberdeen Group plc raised its stake in Ares Capital by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 125,367 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $2,762,000 after acquiring an additional 4,085 shares during the period. Providence Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in Ares Capital by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 154,676 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $3,428,000 after acquiring an additional 1,291 shares during the period. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC raised its stake in Ares Capital by 14.8% during the 1st quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 438,266 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $9,712,000 after acquiring an additional 56,633 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on ARCC. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Ares Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 16th. JMP Securities set a $23.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $24.50 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Ares Capital in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ares Capital presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.86.

Ares Capital Trading Down 0.4%

Ares Capital stock opened at $22.29 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $22.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $21.98. Ares Capital Corporation has a 1 year low of $18.26 and a 1 year high of $23.84. The stock has a market cap of $15.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.87 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 1.14.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The investment management company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.01). Ares Capital had a return on equity of 10.48% and a net margin of 44.94%.The business had revenue of $614.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $748.76 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.61 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Ares Capital Corporation will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th will be given a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.6%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 15th. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is currently 93.66%.

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.