Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd Sells 42,836 Shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd lowered its stake in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 58.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 30,122 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 42,836 shares during the quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $659,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ARCC. Horizon Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 56.8% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,510 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 909 shares in the last quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 92.6% during the 4th quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 2,889 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 1,389 shares during the last quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 200.0% during the 4th quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 3,000 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $66,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $67,000. Institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ARCC. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Raymond James lowered Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com lowered Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ares Capital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.94.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ARCC opened at $23.38 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $22.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $21.79. The company has a market cap of $15.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.54 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a current ratio of 1.21. Ares Capital Co. has a fifty-two week low of $19.32 and a fifty-two week high of $23.84.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The investment management company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.03). Ares Capital had a net margin of 50.90% and a return on equity of 11.54%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.21%. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is 78.37%.

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.