Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Boosts Stock Position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 16.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 36,159 shares of the investment management company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,980 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $792,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ARCC. Providence Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Ares Capital by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 153,385 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $3,358,000 after buying an additional 1,126 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL increased its holdings in Ares Capital by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 280,705 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $6,145,000 after acquiring an additional 8,986 shares during the period. AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Ares Capital during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,232,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Ares Capital by 26.0% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,268,547 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $93,439,000 after purchasing an additional 881,450 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cottage Street Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Ares Capital by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Cottage Street Advisors LLC now owns 187,095 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $4,096,000 after purchasing an additional 837 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Ares Capital Trading Down 1.1 %

ARCC stock opened at $22.11 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $15.13 billion, a PE ratio of 9.02 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a current ratio of 1.21. Ares Capital Co. has a one year low of $19.32 and a one year high of $23.84. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $22.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $21.99.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The investment management company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.03). Ares Capital had a return on equity of 11.54% and a net margin of 50.90%. As a group, analysts predict that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 78.37%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on ARCC shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com cut Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Raymond James cut shares of Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ares Capital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.94.

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.