Sargent Investment Group LLC Acquires 11,440 Shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Sargent Investment Group LLC grew its holdings in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 4.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 274,975 shares of the investment management company’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,440 shares during the quarter. Ares Capital comprises approximately 1.2% of Sargent Investment Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 20th largest position. Sargent Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $5,508,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the 4th quarter valued at $1,431,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the 4th quarter valued at $1,497,000. D.B. Root & Company LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,260,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the 4th quarter valued at $123,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $4,697,000 after acquiring an additional 55,386 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on ARCC shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price on shares of Ares Capital in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, B. Riley downgraded Ares Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $21.00 target price on the stock. in a 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.80.

Ares Capital Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of ARCC stock traded up $0.15 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $20.78. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,640,447 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,468,332. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $20.02. Ares Capital Co. has a 52 week low of $17.53 and a 52 week high of $20.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.24. The company has a market cap of $12.61 billion, a PE ratio of 7.78 and a beta of 1.00.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 7th. The investment management company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.03. Ares Capital had a return on equity of 12.50% and a net margin of 58.22%. The firm had revenue of $707.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $669.78 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.68 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.24%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is 71.91%.

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.