Ares Capital Corporation $ARCC Shares Sold by Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC

Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 24.5% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 9,434 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 3,064 shares during the period. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $207,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ARCC. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new position in Ares Capital in the second quarter valued at $877,203,000. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Ares Capital by 87.2% in the first quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 2,621,109 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $58,084,000 after buying an additional 1,220,570 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC purchased a new position in Ares Capital in the first quarter valued at $14,766,000. CCLA Investment Management increased its holdings in Ares Capital by 26.5% in the first quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 2,799,023 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $62,026,000 after buying an additional 587,068 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SCS Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Ares Capital in the first quarter valued at $11,778,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ARCC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ares Capital in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. JMP Securities set a $23.00 target price on shares of Ares Capital and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ares Capital has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.63.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

ARCC opened at $20.08 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.16 billion, a PE ratio of 9.80 and a beta of 0.68. Ares Capital Corporation has a twelve month low of $18.26 and a twelve month high of $23.84. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $21.07 and its 200 day moving average price is $21.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01.

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). The business had revenue of $614.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $748.76 million. Ares Capital had a return on equity of 10.48% and a net margin of 44.94%.During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.61 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ares Capital Corporation will post 2.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th were given a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 15th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.6%. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is presently 93.66%.

Ares Capital Company 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.