Park Avenue Securities LLC Sells 1,720 Shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Park Avenue Securities LLC lowered its stake in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 7.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 20,195 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 1,720 shares during the quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $423,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Ares Capital by 20.2% in the second 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 in the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Ares Capital during the first quarter valued at approximately $86,227,000. LPL Financial LLC raised its position 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 valued at $72,778,000 after acquiring an additional 273,025 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC raised its position in Ares Capital by 7.8% during the first quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 3,099,134 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $64,524,000 after acquiring an additional 223,245 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sound Income Strategies LLC raised its position in Ares Capital by 3.8% during the second quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 2,138,203 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $44,560,000 after acquiring an additional 78,140 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ARCC has been the subject of several recent research reports. Compass Point upgraded Ares Capital to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report 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 report on Tuesday, July 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price target 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.71.

Ares Capital Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of ARCC opened at $21.32 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.40. Ares Capital Co. has a one year low of $18.55 and a one year high of $21.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.48 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $20.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $20.84.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The investment management company reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 analysts’ expectations of $714.27 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.58 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.01%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 67.37%.

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.