Ares Capital Corporation $ARCC Shares Bought by Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC grew its position in Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 6.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 53,452 shares of the investment management company’s stock after buying an additional 3,359 shares during the quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $1,185,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Elequin Capital LP acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital in the first quarter worth about $30,000. Continuum Advisory LLC raised its position in Ares Capital by 320.7% during the first quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 1,628 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 1,241 shares in the last quarter. Investment Management Corp VA ADV raised its position in Ares Capital by 193.9% during the first quarter. Investment Management Corp VA ADV now owns 1,828 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 1,206 shares in the last quarter. PSI Advisors LLC raised its position in Ares Capital by 121.1% during the first quarter. PSI Advisors LLC now owns 2,100 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 1,150 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Archer Investment Corp raised its position in shares of Ares Capital by 281.3% in the first quarter. Archer Investment Corp now owns 2,440 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 1,800 shares during the period. 27.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ares Capital Stock Up 0.5%

ARCC opened at $22.35 on Thursday. Ares Capital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $18.26 and a fifty-two week high of $23.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $22.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $21.89. The company has a market capitalization of $15.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.90 and a beta of 0.70.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The investment management company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $748.76 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.61 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Ares Capital Corporation will post 2.19 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on ARCC. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Ares Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 16th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. JMP Securities set a $23.00 target price on shares of Ares Capital and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, B. Riley raised shares of Ares Capital from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $22.50 to $23.50 in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.86.

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.