Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Put Options on Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock investors bought 10,067 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 30% compared to the average daily volume of 7,761 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ARCC has been the topic of a number of research reports. Raymond James lowered Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price 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. One 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 given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.94.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ares Capital

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Montag & Caldwell LLC purchased a new position in Ares Capital during the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the 4th quarter worth about $35,000. Promus Capital LLC purchased a new position in Ares Capital in the 4th quarter valued at about $48,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Ares Capital in the 4th quarter worth about $60,000. Finally, Montag A & Associates Inc. increased its stake in Ares Capital by 92.6% during the 4th quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 2,889 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 1,389 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

ARCC stock traded down $0.13 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $22.18. 797,548 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,703,163. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $22.84 and its 200-day simple moving average is $21.95. The firm has a market cap of $15.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.06 and a beta of 1.00. Ares Capital has a 1-year low of $19.32 and a 1-year high of $23.84. 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 posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The investment management company reported $0.55 EPS 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%. On average, analysts expect that Ares Capital will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 8.66%. 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.