Calton & Associates Inc. Buys Shares of 10,353 Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Calton & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 10,353 shares of the investment management company’s stock, valued at approximately $217,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. RFG Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Ares Capital by 10.2% during the 1st quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 26,097 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $543,000 after purchasing an additional 2,422 shares in the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. grew its position in shares of Ares Capital by 21.6% during the 1st quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 58,892 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $1,226,000 after purchasing an additional 10,478 shares in the last quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Ares Capital by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLC now owns 60,346 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $1,256,000 after purchasing an additional 3,399 shares in the last quarter. Baugh & Associates LLC grew its position in shares of Ares Capital by 5.1% during the 1st quarter. Baugh & Associates LLC now owns 243,942 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $5,079,000 after purchasing an additional 11,875 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Register Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Ares Capital by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Register Financial Advisors LLC now owns 60,443 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $1,258,000 after purchasing an additional 1,013 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on ARCC shares. Compass Point upgraded shares of Ares Capital to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. JMP Securities upped their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of Ares Capital in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Ares Capital to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Three 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.71.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

Ares Capital stock opened at $21.59 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. The company has a market capitalization of $13.27 billion, a PE ratio of 7.39 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $20.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $20.89. Ares Capital Co. has a twelve month low of $18.55 and a twelve month high of $21.84.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The investment management company reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $755.00 million during 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 posted $0.58 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.39 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 65.75%.

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.