Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Declares $0.48 Quarterly Dividend

Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 1st, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a dividend of 0.48 per share by the investment management company on Friday, June 28th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.32%.

Ares Capital has raised its dividend by an average of 6.3% annually over the last three years. Ares Capital has a payout ratio of 86.1% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings fall. Equities analysts expect Ares Capital to earn $2.25 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 85.3%.

Ares Capital Price Performance

Shares of ARCC stock opened at $20.60 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $12.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.72 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 has a 1-year low of $17.53 and a 1-year high of $20.94. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $20.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $20.04.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 7th. The investment management company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $707.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $669.78 million. Ares Capital had a net margin of 58.22% and a return on equity of 12.50%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.68 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ares Capital will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ARCC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, B. Riley downgraded shares of Ares Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $21.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ares Capital has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.