Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” by Brokerages

Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC – Get Rating) has received an average recommendation of “Buy” from the ten research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $22.13.

ARCC has been the subject of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Ares Capital from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $22.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 27th. TheStreet lowered Ares Capital from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Monday. Hovde Group lowered their price objective on Ares Capital to $19.00 in a research note on Friday, May 20th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Ares Capital from $22.50 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 25th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Ares Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 12th.

In other news, Director Mary Beth Henson acquired 6,000 shares of Ares Capital stock in a transaction on Monday, March 14th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $20.05 per share, for a total transaction of $120,300.00. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Michael Lewis Smith acquired 54,000 shares of Ares Capital stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 19th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $18.64 per share, for a total transaction of $1,006,560.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 89,000 shares in the company, valued at $1,658,960. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ARCC. Enstar Group LTD increased its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 5,266.8% in the 1st quarter. Enstar Group LTD now owns 3,129,652 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $65,566,000 after acquiring an additional 3,071,337 shares during the period. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd purchased a new position in Ares Capital during the 1st quarter worth $36,527,000. FIL Ltd grew its stake in Ares Capital by 191.6% during the 3rd quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 2,023,525 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $41,138,000 after buying an additional 1,329,568 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its stake in Ares Capital by 147.2% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 1,661,013 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $33,768,000 after buying an additional 989,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in Ares Capital by 4,675.5% during the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 914,605 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $18,594,000 after buying an additional 895,453 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 29.44% of the company’s stock.

Shares of NASDAQ:ARCC traded up $0.34 during trading on Friday, hitting $19.45. 83,057 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,990,632. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.91 and a quick ratio of 1.91. Ares Capital has a 52-week low of $17.79 and a 52-week high of $23.00. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $20.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.87. The company has a market cap of $9.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.20 and a beta of 1.01.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 26th. The investment management company reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by ($0.06). Ares Capital had a net margin of 75.13% and a return on equity of 10.23%. The firm had revenue of $440.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $486.12 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.43 earnings per share. Ares Capital’s quarterly revenue was up 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ares Capital will post 1.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Ares Capital (Get Rating)

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.

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