Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) Trading Down 0.6% After Analyst Downgrade

Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) traded down 0.6% on Wednesday after Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on the stock from $23.00 to $22.00. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Ares Capital traded as low as $18.26 and last traded at $18.81. 3,360,194 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 14% from the average session volume of 3,916,825 shares. The stock had previously closed at $18.91.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on ARCC. Raymond James cut shares of Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com lowered Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. One investment 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ares Capital has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.81.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Montag & Caldwell LLC bought a new stake in Ares Capital during the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Promus Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the 4th quarter valued at $48,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the 4th quarter valued at $60,000. Finally, Montag A & Associates Inc. boosted its holdings in Ares Capital by 92.6% in the 4th quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 2,889 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 1,389 shares during the period. 27.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ares Capital Price Performance

The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $22.27 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.98. The firm has a market cap of $14.28 billion, a PE ratio of 8.51 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick 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 earnings per share (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%. Equities analysts anticipate that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.20%. Ares Capital’s payout ratio 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.