Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) was the target of a large increase in short interest in February. As of February 29th, there was short interest totalling 28,000,000 shares, an increase of 9.4% from the February 14th total of 25,590,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 4,010,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 7.0 days.

Institutional Trading of Ares Capital

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ARCC. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Ares Capital in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Nemes Rush Group LLC purchased a new stake in Ares Capital in the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in Ares Capital by 100.8% in the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,426 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 181,426 shares in the last quarter. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC purchased a new stake in Ares Capital in the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Pingora Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Ares Capital in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 29.32% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ARCC has been the subject of several recent research reports. B. Riley lowered shares of Ares Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $21.00 target price for the company. in a report on Monday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ares Capital has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.60.

Ares Capital Trading Down 0.7 %

NASDAQ:ARCC opened at $20.05 on Tuesday. Ares Capital has a 12 month low of $16.95 and a 12 month high of $20.85. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $20.27 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $19.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The company has a market cap of $12.17 billion, a PE ratio of 7.51 and a beta of 0.99.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 7th. The investment management company reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $707.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $669.78 million. Ares Capital had a net margin of 58.22% and a return on equity of 12.50%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.68 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Ares Capital will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th will be issued a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 14th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.91%.

Ares Capital Company 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.