Crestwood Advisors Group LLC Raises Stake in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Crestwood Advisors Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 93,882 shares of the investment management company’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,428 shares during the quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $1,966,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. United Advisor Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 14.2% during the third quarter. United Advisor Group LLC now owns 101,591 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $2,127,000 after buying an additional 12,627 shares during the last quarter. Centennial Bank AR bought a new position in Ares Capital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $102,000. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in Ares Capital by 8.3% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 12,656,154 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $272,107,000 after purchasing an additional 975,045 shares during the period. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC lifted its position in Ares Capital by 9.0% in the third quarter. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC now owns 238,625 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $4,997,000 after purchasing an additional 19,624 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clear Creek Financial Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 6.3% during the third quarter. Clear Creek Financial Management LLC now owns 175,653 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $3,678,000 after purchasing an additional 10,364 shares during the period. 27.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on ARCC shares. UBS Group raised shares of Ares Capital to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. JMP Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of Ares Capital in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, B. Riley boosted their price target on Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.86.

Ares Capital Price Performance

ARCC stock opened at $21.01 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.29. Ares Capital Co. has a 1 year low of $19.32 and a 1 year high of $22.05. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $21.00 and a 200 day moving average of $20.96. The company has a market cap of $13.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.08 and a beta of 1.01.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The investment management company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $755.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $770.45 million. Ares Capital had a net margin of 53.71% and a return on equity of 12.06%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.59 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.36 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.14%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 73.85%.

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.