Larson Financial Group LLC Decreases Position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Larson Financial Group LLC cut its stake in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 84,383 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 2,233 shares during the quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $1,690,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ARCC. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ares Capital in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. raised its position in shares of Ares Capital by 411.0% during the 3rd quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 1,952 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 1,570 shares during the period. Activest Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Ares Capital by 137.2% during the 4th quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 2,142 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 1,239 shares during the period. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC raised its position in shares of Ares Capital by 59.3% during the 4th quarter. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC now owns 2,351 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 875 shares during the period. Finally, CVA Family Office LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $51,000. 27.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on ARCC. B. Riley lowered 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. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $21.00 target price on shares of Ares Capital in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ares Capital presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.80.

Ares Capital Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:ARCC traded up $0.03 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $20.69. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,160,493 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,580,705. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $20.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $19.98. The company has a market capitalization of $12.55 billion, a PE ratio of 7.74 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.24. Ares Capital Co. has a fifty-two week low of $17.53 and a fifty-two week high of $20.86.

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

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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 was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.28%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.91%.

Ares Capital 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.