Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) Raised to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Sunday.

ARCC has been the topic of several other research reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ares Capital in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. JMP Securities set a $23.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Ares Capital in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.63.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ARCC opened at $19.60 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $21.28 and its 200-day moving average price is $21.53. Ares Capital has a 52-week low of $18.26 and a 52-week high of $23.84. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01. The company has a market cap of $13.83 billion, a PE ratio of 9.56 and a beta of 0.68.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The investment management company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.01). Ares Capital had a return on equity of 10.48% and a net margin of 44.94%.The business had revenue of $614.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $748.76 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.61 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ares Capital will post 2.19 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ares Capital

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

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.