BKM Wealth Management LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

BKM Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 42,388 shares of the investment management company’s stock after acquiring an additional 767 shares during the quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $928,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Ares Capital by 11.8% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 14,145,706 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $309,649,000 after acquiring an additional 1,489,552 shares during the period. Confluence Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ares Capital by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 3,836,573 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $80,338,000 after acquiring an additional 63,999 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ares Capital by 2,104.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,613,285 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $756,620,000 after acquiring an additional 3,449,395 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Ares Capital by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,387,097 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $70,926,000 after acquiring an additional 104,710 shares during the period. Finally, Sound Income Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in Ares Capital by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,314,269 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $50,659,000 after acquiring an additional 96,992 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ARCC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James cut Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com lowered Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. B. Riley lifted their target price on Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ares Capital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.94.

Ares Capital Trading Up 0.8 %

ARCC opened at $23.27 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $15.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.50 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03. Ares Capital Co. has a 12 month low of $19.32 and a 12 month high of $23.84. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $22.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $21.62.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The investment management company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.03). Ares Capital had a return on equity of 11.54% and a net margin of 50.90%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Ares Capital’s dividend 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.