127,858 Shares in Ares Capital Corporation $ARCC Acquired by Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC

Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC bought a new position in shares of Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCC) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 127,858 shares of the investment management company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,364,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 17,558,581 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $355,210,000 after purchasing an additional 341,578 shares during the period. UBS Group AG increased its position in shares of Ares Capital by 41.8% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 11,201,905 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $226,615,000 after purchasing an additional 3,301,890 shares during the last quarter. Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the 1st quarter worth about $189,210,000. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in Ares Capital by 16.0% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 9,135,454 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $164,621,000 after buying an additional 1,259,230 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in Ares Capital by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,408,067 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $109,432,000 after buying an additional 761,838 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on ARCC shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $19.00 to $18.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Oppenheimer dropped their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ares Capital in a research note on Tuesday, June 9th. B. Riley Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.40.

Ares Capital Price Performance

ARCC opened at $19.65 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $18.70 and its 200 day moving average price is $18.88. Ares Capital Corporation has a 12-month low of $17.40 and a 12-month high of $22.76. The firm has a market cap of $14.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.56 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The investment management company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.47. The company had revenue of $768.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $770.19 million. Ares Capital had a return on equity of 9.80% and a net margin of 30.91%.During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.50 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ares Capital Corporation will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be issued a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.8%. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is 142.22%.

Ares Capital Company Profile

Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ: ARCC) is a publicly traded business development company (BDC) that specializes in providing debt and equity financing solutions to U.S. middle-market companies. As a BDC, Ares Capital offers investors access to a diversified portfolio of tailored credit investments, including senior secured loans, unitranche financing, mezzanine debt and equity co-investments. The firm’s flexible capital structures are designed to support companies seeking growth capital, refinancing or strategic acquisitions.

Through its credit platform, Ares Capital focuses on originations, underwriting and portfolio management across a range of industries, with a particular emphasis on sectors such as healthcare, technology, industrials and business services.