Brokerages Set Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Target Price at $21.50

Shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seven ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $21.50.

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on ARCC shares. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $21.00 target price on shares of Ares Capital in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of Ares Capital in a research report on Thursday, May 23rd. Truist Financial increased their target price on Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Ares Capital from $21.50 to $22.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Ares Capital by 17.4% during the first quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 9,719,943 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $202,369,000 after buying an additional 1,437,864 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 4,000,570 shares in the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Ares Capital during the first quarter valued at about $86,227,000. Advisors Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Ares Capital by 7.8% in the 1st quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 3,099,134 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $64,524,000 after purchasing an additional 223,245 shares during the period. Finally, Sound Income Strategies LLC boosted its position in shares of Ares Capital by 5.4% in the 1st quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,060,063 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $42,891,000 after purchasing an additional 105,277 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

ARCC stock opened at $21.15 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. The firm has a market cap of $13.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.24 and a beta of 1.01. Ares Capital has a 12-month low of $18.55 and a 12-month high of $21.84. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $21.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.58.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The investment management company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.60 by ($0.01). Ares Capital had a return on equity of 12.37% and a net margin of 62.77%. The company had revenue of $701.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $703.85 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.56 earnings per share. Ares Capital’s quarterly revenue was up 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ares Capital will post 2.34 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.08%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 65.75%.

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.