Clarus Wealth Advisors Has $206,000 Stock Holdings in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Clarus Wealth Advisors decreased its holdings in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 5.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,118 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 627 shares during the quarter. Clarus Wealth Advisors’ holdings in Ares Capital were worth $206,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 11.3% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 8,282,079 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $165,890,000 after buying an additional 840,823 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Ares Capital by 1,865.8% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,214,991 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $844,260,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000,570 shares during the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Ares Capital during the 1st quarter valued at about $86,227,000. Advisors Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Ares Capital by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 3,043,209 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $59,251,000 after purchasing an additional 23,276 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CCLA Investment Management lifted its holdings in Ares Capital by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 2,047,849 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $41,105,000 after purchasing an additional 24,302 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ARCC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $21.50 to $22.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $21.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a research report on Thursday, May 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.50.

Ares Capital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ARCC opened at $20.58 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $12.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.05 and a beta of 1.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $21.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $20.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a current ratio of 1.63. Ares Capital Co. has a 52-week low of $18.00 and a 52-week high of $21.84.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The investment management company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $701.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $703.85 million. Ares Capital had a net margin of 62.77% and a return on equity of 12.37%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. Analysts expect that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.34 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 65.75%.

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.