Trueblood Wealth Management LLC Invests $335,000 in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Trueblood Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 16,731 shares of the investment management company’s stock, valued at approximately $335,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ARCC. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 10.5% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 7,441,256 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $144,881,000 after purchasing an additional 708,568 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 7.5% in the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,880,360 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $70,818,000 after purchasing an additional 271,811 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 6.3% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,806,105 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $70,280,000 after purchasing an additional 224,553 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 0.5% during the first quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,116,400 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $56,952,000 after acquiring an additional 14,600 shares during the period. Finally, Advisors Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 0.8% during the third quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 3,043,209 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $59,251,000 after acquiring an additional 23,276 shares during the period. 27.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ares Capital Stock Up 1.7 %

ARCC stock traded up $0.34 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $20.82. 7,385,690 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,856,349. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.24. The firm has a market cap of $12.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.79 and a beta of 0.99. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $20.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $19.83. Ares Capital Co. has a 1-year low of $17.53 and a 1-year high of $20.86.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The investment management company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.03. Ares Capital had a net margin of 58.22% and a return on equity of 12.50%. The firm had revenue of $707.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $669.78 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.68 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th will be paid a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.22%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.91%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on ARCC shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price on shares of Ares Capital in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, B. Riley cut shares of Ares Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $21.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.80.

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.