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

Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 30th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of 0.48 per share by the investment management company on Monday, December 30th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.00%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th.

Ares Capital has increased its dividend by an average of 6.3% annually over the last three years. Ares Capital has a dividend payout ratio of 86.5% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings fall. 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 Price Performance

Ares Capital stock opened at $21.34 on Thursday. Ares Capital has a 52-week low of $18.86 and a 52-week high of $22.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $21.00 and its 200 day moving average is $20.94. The company has a market cap of $13.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.31 and a beta of 1.01.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The investment management company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by ($0.01). Ares Capital had a return on equity of 12.24% and a net margin of 59.76%. The business had revenue of $755.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $770.45 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.59 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ares Capital will post 2.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ARCC. UBS Group raised Ares Capital to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Compass Point upgraded shares of Ares Capital to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of Ares Capital in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, JMP Securities upped their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ares Capital presently 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.