Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 470,982 Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 470,982 shares of the investment management company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,815,000. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.08% of Ares Capital as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in shares of Ares Capital by 20.2% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 11,681,109 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $243,434,000 after purchasing an additional 1,961,166 shares in the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Ares Capital during the first quarter worth about $86,227,000. LPL Financial LLC grew its stake 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 buying an additional 273,025 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Ares Capital by 7.8% in the 1st quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 3,099,134 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $64,524,000 after buying an additional 223,245 shares during the period. Finally, Sound Income Strategies LLC raised its position in shares of Ares Capital by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,138,203 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $44,560,000 after buying an additional 78,140 shares in the last quarter. 27.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Compass Point raised shares of Ares Capital to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. JMP Securities lifted their price target on Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Ares Capital to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.71.

Ares Capital Trading Up 1.1 %

NASDAQ:ARCC opened at $20.91 on Friday. Ares Capital Co. has a 52 week low of $18.55 and a 52 week high of $21.84. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $20.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $20.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.40. The firm has a market cap of $12.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.16 and a beta of 1.01.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The investment management company reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $755.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $714.27 million. Ares Capital had a net margin of 59.76% and a return on equity of 12.24%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.58 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.18%. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is 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.