Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Shares Purchased by Valley National Advisers Inc.

Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 323.3% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,435 shares of the investment management company’s stock after buying an additional 1,096 shares during the period. Valley National Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $29,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 11.3% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 8,282,079 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $165,890,000 after purchasing an additional 840,823 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 1,865.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 4,000,570 shares during the period. Confluence Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the first quarter valued at approximately $86,227,000. Advisors Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 23,276 shares during the period. Finally, Sound Income Strategies LLC increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 5.4% in the first quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,060,063 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $42,891,000 after purchasing an additional 105,277 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Ares Capital Price Performance

NASDAQ:ARCC traded up $0.08 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $20.96. 1,336,444 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,535,077. The company has a market capitalization of $12.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.18 and a beta of 1.01. Ares Capital Co. has a 12 month low of $18.55 and a 12 month high of $21.84. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $21.04 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $20.53.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The investment management company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by ($0.01). Ares Capital had a return on equity of 12.37% and a net margin of 62.77%. The firm had revenue of $701.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $703.85 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were paid a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.16%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is 65.75%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ARCC. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $21.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $21.50 to $22.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a report on Thursday, May 23rd. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.50.

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.