Financial Counselors Inc. Cuts Position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Financial Counselors Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 33,382 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 649 shares during the period. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $731,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR acquired a new stake in Ares Capital in the 4th quarter valued at $84,426,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the fourth quarter valued at about $58,159,000. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 11.8% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 14,145,706 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $309,649,000 after purchasing an additional 1,489,552 shares in the last quarter. CCLA Investment Management raised its position in shares of 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. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Ares Capital by 48.6% in the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 1,400,539 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $30,658,000 after buying an additional 458,360 shares in the last quarter. 27.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com cut shares of Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Raymond James lowered shares of Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ares Capital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.94.

Ares Capital Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of ARCC opened at $22.11 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $22.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $21.97. Ares Capital Co. has a 12-month low of $19.32 and a 12-month high of $23.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.02 and a beta of 1.00.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The investment management company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.03). Ares Capital had a return on equity of 11.54% and a net margin of 50.90%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 78.37%.

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.