Verus Capital Partners LLC Grows Position in Ares Capital Corporation $ARCC

Verus Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 59.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 31,951 shares of the investment management company’s stock after buying an additional 11,956 shares during the period. Verus Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $702,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the second quarter valued at $877,203,000. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its position in Ares Capital by 87.2% during the 1st quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 2,621,109 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $58,084,000 after acquiring an additional 1,220,570 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC purchased a new stake in Ares Capital during the 1st quarter valued at about $14,766,000. CCLA Investment Management grew its stake in Ares Capital by 26.5% during the 1st quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 2,799,023 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $62,026,000 after purchasing an additional 587,068 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SCS Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital in the first quarter valued at about $11,778,000. 27.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ares Capital

In other news, CEO Michael Kort Schnabel acquired 13,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 31st. The stock was acquired at an average price of $20.39 per share, for a total transaction of $265,070.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 28,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $570,920. The trade was a 86.67% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.48% of the company’s stock.

Ares Capital Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:ARCC opened at $20.31 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.20, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. Ares Capital Corporation has a 12-month low of $18.26 and a 12-month high of $23.84. The business has a 50 day moving average of $20.59 and a two-hundred day moving average of $21.55. The company has a market capitalization of $14.54 billion, a PE ratio of 10.16 and a beta of 0.68.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted 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 net margin of 45.16% and a return on equity of 10.08%. The firm had revenue of $658.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $766.48 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.58 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Ares Capital Corporation will post 2.19 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be issued a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.5%. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is presently 96.00%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Wall Street Zen raised Ares Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, October 19th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $22.50 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. JMP Securities set a $23.00 price target on shares of Ares Capital and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. B. Riley raised shares of Ares Capital from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $22.50 to $23.50 in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.25.

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.