FourThought Financial Partners LLC Raises Stock Position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

FourThought Financial Partners LLC lifted its position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 1.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 84,533 shares of the investment management company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,404 shares during the period. FourThought Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $1,850,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 9.3% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 139,214 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $3,047,000 after buying an additional 11,827 shares in the last quarter. BankPlus Trust Department bought a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the 4th quarter valued at $1,755,000. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC grew its holdings in Ares Capital by 71.8% during the fourth quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 161,305 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $3,531,000 after purchasing an additional 67,423 shares during the period. IFP Advisors Inc grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 21,429 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $469,000 after acquiring an additional 1,646 shares during the period. Finally, Mainstay Capital Management LLC ADV increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Mainstay Capital Management LLC ADV now owns 106,608 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $2,334,000 after purchasing an additional 1,809 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ARCC has been the subject of a number of research reports. B. Riley upped their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Raymond James lowered shares of Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned 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 price target of $22.94.

Ares Capital Stock Down 0.3 %

Ares Capital stock opened at $23.22 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $22.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $21.73. Ares Capital Co. has a 1-year low of $19.32 and a 1-year high of $23.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.48 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 1.21.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The investment management company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.03). Ares Capital had a net margin of 50.90% and a return on equity of 11.54%. Equities research analysts forecast that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.27%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is 78.37%.

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.