Kavar Capital Partners Group LLC Grows Stake in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Kavar Capital Partners Group LLC boosted its stake in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 239,223 shares of the investment management company’s stock after buying an additional 3,542 shares during the quarter. Kavar Capital Partners Group LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $5,237,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 2,104.7% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,613,285 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $756,620,000 after acquiring an additional 3,449,395 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings 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 valued at $272,107,000 after purchasing an additional 975,045 shares in the last quarter. CCLA Investment Management boosted its stake in Ares Capital by 31.6% during the 4th quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 2,211,955 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $48,419,000 after purchasing an additional 531,305 shares during the last quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the second quarter worth $9,815,000. Finally, Partners Group Holding AG raised its position in shares of Ares Capital by 21.2% in the third quarter. Partners Group Holding AG now owns 1,787,401 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $37,428,000 after buying an additional 312,255 shares during the last quarter. 27.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

NASDAQ ARCC opened at $23.43 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $15.14 billion, a PE ratio of 9.01 and a beta of 1.00. Ares Capital Co. has a twelve month low of $19.32 and a twelve month high of $23.53. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $22.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The investment management company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $755.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $770.45 million. Ares Capital had a net margin of 53.71% and a return on equity of 12.06%. Ares Capital’s revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.59 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is 73.85%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ARCC has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Ares Capital from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. StockNews.com upgraded Ares Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, B. Riley upped their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ares Capital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.29.

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.