Mirador Capital Partners LP Grows Holdings in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Mirador Capital Partners LP grew its holdings in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 242,811 shares of the investment management company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,217 shares during the period. Ares Capital comprises approximately 1.0% of Mirador Capital Partners LP’s holdings, making the stock its 28th largest holding. Mirador Capital Partners LP’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $5,315,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ARCC. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 192,841 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $4,221,000 after buying an additional 2,970 shares during the period. Foresight Capital Management Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Foresight Capital Management Advisors Inc. now owns 294,381 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $6,444,000 after buying an additional 13,540 shares during the period. Brendel Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Brendel Financial Advisors LLC now owns 102,972 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $2,254,000 after buying an additional 2,626 shares during the period. CCLA Investment Management increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 31.6% during the fourth quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 2,211,955 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $48,419,000 after buying an additional 531,305 shares during the period. Finally, Community Trust & Investment Co. increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Community Trust & Investment Co. now owns 154,505 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $3,382,000 after buying an additional 4,831 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com upgraded Ares Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Ares Capital from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, B. Riley raised their price target on Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.29.

Ares Capital Trading Up 0.3 %

Ares Capital stock opened at $22.73 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $21.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $21.26. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The company has a market capitalization of $14.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.74 and a beta of 1.00. Ares Capital Co. has a 52 week low of $19.32 and a 52 week high of $22.75.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The investment management company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.59 by ($0.01). Ares Capital had a net margin of 53.71% and a return on equity of 12.06%. The company had revenue of $755.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $770.45 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.59 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.36 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were given a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.45%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is 73.85%.

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.