Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) Short Interest Down 35.0% in March

Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 18,190,000 shares, a drop of 35.0% from the February 29th total of 28,000,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 3,780,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.8 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on ARCC shares. B. Riley cut shares of Ares Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $21.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $21.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a report on Tuesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.80.

Institutional Trading of Ares Capital

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Nemes Rush Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ares Capital in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of 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 valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 181,426 shares during the period. Pingora Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Capital during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. 27.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ares Capital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ARCC opened at $20.82 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.80 and a beta of 0.99. Ares Capital has a 52 week low of $17.53 and a 52 week high of $20.86. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $20.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $19.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 7th. The investment management company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.03. The company 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%. Ares Capital’s quarterly revenue was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.68 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Ares Capital will post 2.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.22%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 14th. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 71.91%.

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.