Bank of New Hampshire Raises Stock Holdings in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Bank of New Hampshire lifted its holdings in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 6.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 83,852 shares of the investment management company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,410 shares during the period. Bank of New Hampshire’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $1,680,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,431,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,497,000. D.B. Root & Company LLC purchased a new stake in Ares Capital in the third quarter worth $1,260,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Ares Capital in the fourth quarter worth $123,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in Ares Capital by 29.8% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 241,231 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $4,697,000 after buying an additional 55,386 shares during the last quarter. 27.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on 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 reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $21.00 target price on shares of Ares Capital in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, B. Riley downgraded Ares Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $21.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ares Capital presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.80.

Ares Capital Price Performance

ARCC stock traded up $0.17 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $20.80. 1,247,939 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,529,236. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.24. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $20.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $20.00. Ares Capital Co. has a 12 month low of $17.53 and a 12 month high of $20.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.73 and a beta of 1.00.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The investment management company reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.03. Ares Capital had a return on equity of 12.50% and a net margin of 58.22%. The firm had revenue of $707.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $669.78 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.68 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.23%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.91%.

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.