Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC Grows Position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 10.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 61,011 shares of the investment management company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,762 shares during the quarter. Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $1,222,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ARCC. Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the 4th quarter worth $1,431,000. D.B. Root & Company LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the third quarter worth about $1,260,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Ares Capital in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $123,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in Ares Capital by 29.8% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 241,231 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $4,697,000 after buying an additional 55,386 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Seven Eight Capital LP acquired a new stake in Ares Capital during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $278,000. 27.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on ARCC shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $21.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a report on Tuesday. Finally, B. Riley downgraded Ares Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $21.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ares Capital has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.80.

Ares Capital Price Performance

NASDAQ ARCC traded up $0.34 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $20.82. The stock had a trading volume of 7,385,573 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,857,399. Ares Capital Co. has a twelve month low of $17.53 and a twelve month high of $20.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.80 and a beta of 0.99. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $20.25 and its 200 day moving average is $19.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.24.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 7th. The investment management company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $707.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $669.78 million. Ares Capital had a net margin of 58.22% and a return on equity of 12.50%. Ares Capital’s quarterly revenue was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.68 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be paid a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.22%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.91%.

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.