Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) Posts Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.01 EPS

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The investment management company reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by ($0.01), Briefing.com reports. Ares Capital had a net margin of 59.76% and a return on equity of 12.24%. The company had revenue of $755.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $770.45 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.59 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year.

Ares Capital Trading Down 0.9 %

Ares Capital stock traded down $0.20 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $21.14. The company had a trading volume of 2,801,881 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,366,996. The firm has a market cap of $13.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.27 and a beta of 1.01. Ares Capital has a 12-month low of $18.86 and a 12-month high of $22.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.40. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $21.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $20.94.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.08%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 65.75%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ARCC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of Ares Capital in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Compass Point raised shares of Ares Capital to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. B. Riley lifted their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Ares Capital to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.86.

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.