Ares Capital Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) saw some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Traders acquired 4,054 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 63% compared to the typical daily volume of 2,483 put options.

Institutional Trading of Ares Capital

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 8.3% in the third 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 during the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Ares Capital by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 3,836,573 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $80,338,000 after acquiring an additional 63,999 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Ares Capital by 2,104.7% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,613,285 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $756,620,000 after acquiring an additional 3,449,395 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC lifted its position in Ares Capital by 8.5% during the second quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 3,492,247 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $72,778,000 after acquiring an additional 273,025 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sound Income Strategies LLC grew its position in shares of Ares Capital by 3.7% in the third quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,217,277 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $46,430,000 after purchasing an additional 79,074 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Ares Capital Stock Down 0.4 %

Ares Capital stock traded down $0.09 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $21.74. The stock had a trading volume of 808,065 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,380,503. Ares Capital has a 1-year low of $19.32 and a 1-year high of $22.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.29. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $21.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $21.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.40 and a beta of 1.01.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released its 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). Ares Capital had a net margin of 53.71% and a return on equity of 12.06%. The business had revenue of $755.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $770.45 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.59 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Ares Capital will post 2.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.83%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 73.85%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on ARCC shares. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a report on Monday, August 5th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ares Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Compass Point upgraded shares of Ares Capital to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Ares Capital to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, JMP Securities upped their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.86.

Ares Capital Company 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.