Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Announces $0.48 Quarterly Dividend

Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, July 30th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.48 per share by the investment management company on Monday, September 30th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.01%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th.

Ares Capital has raised its dividend payment by an average of 6.3% per year over the last three years. Ares Capital has a dividend payout ratio of 87.3% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Equities research analysts expect Ares Capital to earn $2.22 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 86.5%.

Ares Capital Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ ARCC opened at $21.32 on Wednesday. Ares Capital has a 1-year low of $18.55 and a 1-year high of $21.84. The company has a 50-day moving average of $21.06 and a two-hundred day moving average of $20.66. The company has a market cap of $13.10 billion, a PE ratio of 7.29 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The investment management company reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $755.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $714.27 million. Ares Capital had a net margin of 62.77% and a return on equity of 12.37%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.58 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ares Capital will post 2.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ARCC. JMP Securities upped their price target on Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of Ares Capital in a research report on Thursday, May 23rd. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $21.50 to $22.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.71.

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.