Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. Has $66,000 Stock Holdings in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 200.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,000 shares of the investment management company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,000 shares during the quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $66,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ARCC. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $519,000. Round Rock Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Ares Capital in the 4th quarter worth about $1,512,000. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 507,374 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $11,208,000 after purchasing an additional 25,347 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 24.3% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 650,163 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $13,900,000 after purchasing an additional 127,219 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its stake in Ares Capital by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 885,406 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $18,540,000 after purchasing an additional 38,559 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on ARCC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com cut Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday. B. Riley increased their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Raymond James lowered Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.94.

Ares Capital Price Performance

ARCC opened at $22.74 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.21. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $22.40 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $21.53. Ares Capital Co. has a 52-week low of $19.32 and a 52-week high of $23.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.28 and a beta of 1.01.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The investment management company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.03). Ares Capital had a net margin of 50.90% and a return on equity of 11.54%. As a group, analysts predict that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.44%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 78.37%.

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.