12,012 Shares in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Bought by Stablepoint Partners LLC

Stablepoint Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 12,012 shares of the investment management company’s stock, valued at approximately $263,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Ares Capital by 2,104.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,613,285 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $756,620,000 after acquiring an additional 3,449,395 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 8.3% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 12,656,154 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $272,107,000 after purchasing an additional 975,045 shares during the last quarter. CCLA Investment Management boosted its position in shares of 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 worth $48,419,000 after purchasing an additional 531,305 shares in the last quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $9,815,000. Finally, Partners Group Holding AG increased its position in Ares Capital by 21.2% during the 3rd quarter. Partners Group Holding AG now owns 1,787,401 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $37,428,000 after buying an additional 312,255 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on ARCC. StockNews.com raised Ares Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. B. Riley increased their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Ares Capital from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ares Capital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.29.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

Shares of ARCC stock opened at $23.43 on Monday. 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 50 day moving average price of $22.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $21.37. Ares Capital Co. has a 52 week low of $19.32 and a 52 week high of $23.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.14 billion, a PE ratio of 9.01 and a beta of 1.00.

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

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.19%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is 73.85%.

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.