Van ECK Associates Corp Has $165.89 Million Holdings in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 11.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,282,079 shares of the investment management company’s stock after purchasing an additional 840,823 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp owned about 1.45% of Ares Capital worth $165,890,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Ares Capital by 1,865.8% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,214,991 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $844,260,000 after acquiring an additional 4,000,570 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Ares Capital by 0.8% in the third quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 3,043,209 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $59,251,000 after buying an additional 23,276 shares during the period. Sound Income Strategies LLC lifted its stake in Ares Capital by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 1,954,786 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $39,154,000 after buying an additional 66,878 shares during the period. Bruni J V & Co. Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Bruni J V & Co. Co. now owns 1,398,203 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $28,006,000 after buying an additional 6,001 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gilbert & Cook Inc. grew its position in shares of Ares Capital by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 1,384,752 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $27,737,000 after buying an additional 85,561 shares during the period. 27.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ares Capital Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of ARCC stock traded down $0.14 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $20.67. The company had a trading volume of 803,097 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,503,183. The company has a market cap of $12.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.79 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.24. Ares Capital Co. has a 12 month low of $17.53 and a 12 month high of $20.94. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $20.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $20.04.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 7th. The investment management company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.03. Ares Capital had a return on equity of 12.50% and a net margin of 58.22%. The business had revenue of $707.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $669.78 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.68 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.29%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.91%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ARCC. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price on shares of Ares Capital in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. B. Riley lowered Ares Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $21.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ares Capital has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.80.

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.