Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Announces $0.48 Quarterly Dividend

Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 5th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of 0.48 per share by the investment management company on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th.

Ares Capital has increased its dividend by an average of 5.8% per year over the last three years. Ares Capital has a dividend payout ratio of 88.5% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings tumble. Equities research analysts expect Ares Capital to earn $2.21 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 86.9%.

Ares Capital Price Performance

NASDAQ:ARCC opened at $22.73 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The firm has a market cap of $14.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.74 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $22.39 and a 200-day moving average price of $21.51. Ares Capital has a 1-year low of $19.32 and a 1-year high of $23.84.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The investment management company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.03). Ares Capital had a net margin of 53.71% and a return on equity of 12.06%. Equities research analysts forecast that Ares Capital will post 2.36 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. B. Riley boosted their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com raised shares of Ares Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Raymond James lowered shares of Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ares Capital has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.64.

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.