B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. Decreases Position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 128,661 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 2,472 shares during the period. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $2,682,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 1,961,166 shares during the period. Confluence Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Ares Capital during the 1st quarter worth about $86,227,000. LPL Financial LLC lifted its position in Ares Capital by 8.5% during the 2nd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 3,492,247 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $72,778,000 after acquiring an additional 273,025 shares during the period. Advisors Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Ares Capital by 7.8% during the 1st quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 3,099,134 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $64,524,000 after acquiring an additional 223,245 shares during the period. Finally, Sound Income Strategies LLC lifted its position in Ares Capital by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,138,203 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $44,560,000 after acquiring an additional 78,140 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Ares Capital Price Performance

Shares of Ares Capital stock opened at $20.74 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. Ares Capital Co. has a twelve month low of $18.55 and a twelve month high of $21.84. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $20.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $20.79. The firm has a market cap of $12.75 billion, a PE ratio of 7.10 and a beta of 1.01.

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

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.26%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 65.75%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.