abrdn plc Acquires 10,795 Shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

abrdn plc increased its holdings in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 35.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 41,177 shares of the investment management company’s stock after buying an additional 10,795 shares during the quarter. abrdn plc’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $825,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in Ares Capital by 10.5% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 7,441,256 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $144,881,000 after acquiring an additional 708,568 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Ares Capital by 1,865.8% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,214,991 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $844,260,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000,570 shares during the period. Advisors Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 0.8% in the third quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 3,043,209 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $59,251,000 after buying an additional 23,276 shares during the period. Sound Income Strategies LLC lifted its position in shares of Ares Capital by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 1,954,786 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $39,154,000 after buying an additional 66,878 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Ares Capital by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,378,882 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $26,847,000 after acquiring an additional 59,808 shares in 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. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $21.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. B. Riley lowered Ares Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $21.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ares Capital has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.80.

Ares Capital Price Performance

Shares of ARCC stock opened at $20.81 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $20.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $20.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.79 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 $20.94.

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

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.23%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.91%.

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.