Accel Wealth Management Invests $535,000 in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Accel Wealth Management acquired a new position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 26,703 shares of the investment management company’s stock, valued at approximately $535,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc acquired a new stake in Ares Capital during the fourth quarter worth $1,431,000. D.B. Root & Company LLC acquired a new position in Ares Capital in the third quarter worth about $1,260,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Ares Capital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $123,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 29.8% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 241,231 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $4,697,000 after purchasing an additional 55,386 shares during the period. Finally, Seven Eight Capital LP acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $278,000. Institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ARCC traded up $0.24 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $20.48. 4,134,609 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,797,459. Ares Capital Co. has a 52 week low of $17.53 and a 52 week high of $20.85. 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 stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $19.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.67 and a beta of 0.99.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The investment management company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $669.78 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.68 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.34 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.38%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 14th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 71.91%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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