Madison Park Capital Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Madison Park Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 10,000 shares of the investment management company’s stock, valued at approximately $200,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 411.0% during the 3rd quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 1,952 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 1,570 shares during the last quarter. Activest Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 137.2% during the 4th quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 2,142 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 1,239 shares during the last quarter. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ares Capital by 59.3% during the 4th quarter. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC now owns 2,351 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CVA Family Office LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $51,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

ARCC traded up $0.08 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $20.74. 2,077,675 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,593,205. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $20.33 and a 200-day simple moving average of $19.99. Ares Capital Co. has a 12 month low of $17.53 and a 12 month high of $20.86. The stock has a market cap of $12.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.77 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.24.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The investment management company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.03. Ares Capital had a return on equity of 12.50% and a net margin of 58.22%. The firm had revenue of $707.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $669.78 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.68 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.91%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. B. Riley cut Ares Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $21.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ares Capital has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.80.

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.