First National Trust Co Has $4.18 Million Stock Position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

First National Trust Co increased its stake in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 98.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 191,136 shares of the investment management company’s stock after buying an additional 94,608 shares during the period. First National Trust Co’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $4,184,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Horizon Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital in the third quarter worth approximately $28,000. Promus Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital in the fourth quarter worth approximately $48,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital in the fourth quarter worth approximately $60,000. Montag A & Associates Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 92.6% in the fourth 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 period. Finally, Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. lifted its stake in Ares Capital by 200.0% in the fourth quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 3,000 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $66,000 after buying an additional 2,000 shares during the period. 27.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on ARCC. Raymond James lowered Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com lowered Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ares Capital presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.94.

Ares Capital Trading Down 0.7 %

NASDAQ ARCC opened at $21.28 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $14.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.69 and a beta of 1.00. Ares Capital Co. has a 52 week low of $19.32 and a 52 week high of $23.84. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $22.88 and a 200-day moving average price of $21.89. The company has a quick ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The investment management company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 expect that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.02%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 78.37%.

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.