Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Stock Holdings Lifted by First Affirmative Financial Network

First Affirmative Financial Network increased its position in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 46.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 20,615 shares of the investment management company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,544 shares during the quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $451,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ARCC. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 24.3% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 650,163 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $13,900,000 after purchasing an additional 127,219 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its position in Ares Capital by 4.6% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 885,406 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $18,540,000 after purchasing an additional 38,559 shares in the last quarter. CCLA Investment Management increased its stake in Ares Capital by 31.6% in the 4th 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. Romano Brothers AND Company lifted its position in Ares Capital by 11.2% in the 4th quarter. Romano Brothers AND Company now owns 354,237 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $7,754,000 after buying an additional 35,659 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Confluence Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 3,836,573 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $80,338,000 after buying an additional 63,999 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on ARCC. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. StockNews.com raised Ares Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, B. Riley lifted their price target on Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.43.

Ares Capital Price Performance

Shares of Ares Capital stock opened at $23.18 on Thursday. Ares Capital Co. has a 1-year low of $19.32 and a 1-year high of $23.56. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $22.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.41. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.92 and a beta of 1.00.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The investment management company reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by ($0.01). Ares Capital had a net margin of 53.71% and a return on equity of 12.06%. The business had revenue of $755.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $770.45 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.59 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.36 earnings per share for the current year.

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.