PNC Financial Services Group Inc. Trims Position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 153,010 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 1,526 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc.’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $3,204,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ares Capital by 4.6% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 885,406 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $18,540,000 after purchasing an additional 38,559 shares in the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Ares Capital by 1.7% during the third quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 3,836,573 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $80,338,000 after purchasing an additional 63,999 shares in the last quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ares Capital by 32.5% during the third quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. now owns 211,797 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $4,435,000 after purchasing an additional 52,007 shares in the last quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Ares Capital by 151.4% during the second quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 45,698 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $952,000 after purchasing an additional 27,523 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. boosted its holdings in Ares Capital by 4.6% in the third quarter. Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 681,724 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $14,275,000 after acquiring an additional 29,786 shares in the last quarter. 27.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ARCC. JMP Securities upped their price target on Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Compass Point raised Ares Capital to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. StockNews.com raised Ares Capital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. B. Riley upped their price objective on Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Four investment 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ares Capital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.86.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

Shares of ARCC opened at $22.02 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $21.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $21.04. The stock has a market cap of $14.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.47 and a beta of 1.01. Ares Capital Co. has a 52 week low of $19.32 and a 52 week high of $22.05.

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

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The firm 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 $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 73.85%.

Ares Capital 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.