Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Shares Sold by EntryPoint Capital LLC

EntryPoint Capital LLC cut its holdings in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 52.7% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 3,229 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 3,591 shares during the period. EntryPoint Capital LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $67,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Lewis Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Ares Capital by 2.1% in the first quarter. Lewis Asset Management LLC now owns 24,805 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $516,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Chapin Davis Inc. boosted its holdings in Ares Capital by 2.2% in the first quarter. Chapin Davis Inc. now owns 22,966 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $478,000 after acquiring an additional 501 shares during the last quarter. Lincoln National Corp grew its position in Ares Capital by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Lincoln National Corp now owns 17,665 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $354,000 after acquiring an additional 520 shares during the period. Baron Financial Group LLC grew its position in Ares Capital by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Baron Financial Group LLC now owns 18,366 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $368,000 after acquiring an additional 543 shares during the period. Finally, Transcend Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in Ares Capital by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Transcend Capital Advisors LLC now owns 108,577 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $2,175,000 after acquiring an additional 557 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ARCC. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of Ares Capital in a report on Thursday, May 23rd. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ares Capital presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.57.

Ares Capital Stock Up 0.9 %

NASDAQ:ARCC traded up $0.18 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $20.95. The stock had a trading volume of 2,151,992 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,411,995. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $21.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $20.65. Ares Capital Co. has a 1-year low of $18.55 and a 1-year high of $21.84. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. The company has a market cap of $12.87 billion, a PE ratio of 7.17 and a beta of 1.01.

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

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

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

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.