Ares Capital Corporation $ARCC Shares Sold by Spire Wealth Management

Spire Wealth Management lowered its stake in shares of Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 14.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 63,751 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 10,996 shares during the quarter. Spire Wealth Management’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $1,400,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC increased its position in Ares Capital by 20.9% in the second quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC now owns 126,366 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $2,775,000 after buying an additional 21,847 shares during the period. Confluence Investment Management LLC increased its position in Ares Capital by 0.6% in the second quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 3,796,791 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $83,378,000 after buying an additional 21,344 shares during the period. Rollins Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in Ares Capital by 10.2% in the first quarter. Rollins Financial Advisors LLC now owns 138,139 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $3,061,000 after buying an additional 12,838 shares during the period. Sound Income Strategies LLC increased its position in Ares Capital by 3.2% in the second quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,453,944 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $53,889,000 after buying an additional 75,109 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in Ares Capital by 0.7% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 241,119 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $5,343,000 after buying an additional 1,776 shares during the period. 27.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ARCC has been the topic of several analyst reports. B. Riley raised Ares Capital from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $22.50 to $23.50 in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. UBS Group decreased their price target on Ares Capital from $22.50 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price target on Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Ares Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, October 19th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.25.

Ares Capital Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of ARCC stock opened at $20.35 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $20.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $21.54. Ares Capital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $18.26 and a fifty-two week high of $23.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.18 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 2.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The investment management company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.50. Ares Capital had a return on equity of 10.08% and a net margin of 45.16%.The business had revenue of $658.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $766.48 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.58 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Ares Capital Corporation will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 30th. Investors of record on Monday, December 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.4%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 96.00%.

Ares Capital Company 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.