Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Stock Holdings Reduced by LGT Capital Partners LTD.

LGT Capital Partners LTD. lowered its position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 2.8% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 685,575 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 20,000 shares during the quarter. LGT Capital Partners LTD.’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $14,356,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BIP Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 76.7% during the 3rd quarter. BIP Wealth LLC now owns 25,932 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $543,000 after acquiring an additional 11,260 shares in the last quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 336,879 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $7,054,000 after acquiring an additional 21,005 shares in the last quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 6.7% during the 3rd quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 1,514,588 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $31,715,000 after acquiring an additional 94,961 shares in the last quarter. Atlanta Consulting Group Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the 3rd quarter worth about $241,000. Finally, GoalVest Advisory LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLC now owns 59,455 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $1,245,000 after acquiring an additional 3,133 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ARCC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group upgraded Ares Capital to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Compass Point raised Ares Capital to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. JMP Securities boosted their price objective on Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Ares Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Four research 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, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.86.

Ares Capital Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of ARCC opened at $21.68 on Tuesday. Ares Capital Co. has a 1 year low of $19.32 and a 1 year high of $22.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $21.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.01. The stock has a market cap of $14.01 billion, a PE ratio of 8.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The investment management company reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by ($0.01). Ares Capital had a return on equity of 12.06% and a net margin of 53.71%. The company had revenue of $755.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $770.45 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.59 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.86%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 73.85%.

Ares Capital 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.