Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. Grows Position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 27.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 40,459 shares of the investment management company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,824 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $888,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brookstone Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the third quarter valued at about $266,000. Fiduciary Alliance LLC purchased a new position in Ares Capital during the 3rd quarter valued at about $378,000. Grove Bank & Trust raised its position in Ares Capital by 565.0% during the 3rd quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 5,400 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $113,000 after purchasing an additional 4,588 shares during the last quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Ares Capital by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 63,609 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $1,332,000 after buying an additional 767 shares during the period. Finally, Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Ares Capital by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC now owns 30,749 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $644,000 after buying an additional 2,184 shares during the last quarter. 27.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on ARCC. B. Riley upped their target price on Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com cut shares of Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Raymond James cut Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.94.

Ares Capital Price Performance

Shares of ARCC opened at $22.70 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $22.43 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $21.56. Ares Capital Co. has a fifty-two week low of $19.32 and a fifty-two week high of $23.84. The stock has a market cap of $15.24 billion, a PE ratio of 9.27 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.21.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The investment management company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.03). Ares Capital had a net margin of 50.90% and a return on equity of 11.54%. Analysts anticipate that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.46%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is 78.37%.

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.