Boston Partners Raises Holdings in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Boston Partners boosted its stake in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 19.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 437,215 shares of the investment management company’s stock after buying an additional 71,408 shares during the period. Boston Partners’ holdings in Ares Capital were worth $9,575,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital in the 4th quarter valued at $519,000. Round Rock Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ares Capital in the fourth quarter valued at $1,512,000. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC raised its position in shares of Ares Capital by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 507,374 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $11,208,000 after acquiring an additional 25,347 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 24.3% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 650,163 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $13,900,000 after acquiring an additional 127,219 shares in the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE grew its position in shares of Ares Capital by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 43,056 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $942,000 after acquiring an additional 1,945 shares during the period. 27.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ARCC has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com cut shares of Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Raymond James lowered shares of Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ares Capital has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.94.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

Ares Capital stock opened at $21.73 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $14.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.87 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 1.21. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $22.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.91. Ares Capital Co. has a 1-year low of $19.32 and a 1-year high of $23.84.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The investment management company reported $0.55 earnings per share (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%. On average, analysts expect that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.