Intrepid Capital Management Inc. Purchases New Shares in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Intrepid Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 20,209 shares of the investment management company’s stock, valued at approximately $442,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ARCC. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 11.8% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 14,145,706 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $309,649,000 after purchasing an additional 1,489,552 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Ares Capital by 26.0% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,268,547 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $93,439,000 after buying an additional 881,450 shares during the last quarter. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR bought a new position in Ares Capital in the 4th quarter valued at $84,426,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the 4th quarter valued at $58,159,000. Finally, Sound Income Strategies LLC raised its position in shares of Ares Capital by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,314,269 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $50,659,000 after acquiring an additional 96,992 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on ARCC shares. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com cut Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ares Capital presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.94.

Ares Capital Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of ARCC stock opened at $22.29 on Wednesday. Ares Capital Co. has a fifty-two week low of $19.32 and a fifty-two week high of $23.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a current ratio of 1.21. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $22.76 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $22.01. The company has a market cap of $15.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.10 and a beta of 1.00.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The investment management company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.03). Ares Capital had a return on equity of 11.54% and a net margin of 50.90%. Research analysts forecast that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.61%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 78.37%.

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.