Bank of New Hampshire Purchases 5,410 Shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Bank of New Hampshire boosted its stake in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 6.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 83,852 shares of the investment management company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,410 shares during the quarter. Bank of New Hampshire’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $1,680,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,431,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Ares Capital in the fourth quarter valued at $1,497,000. D.B. Root & Company LLC bought a new position in shares of Ares Capital in the third quarter valued at $1,260,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Ares Capital during the 4th quarter valued at $123,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in Ares Capital by 29.8% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 241,231 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $4,697,000 after purchasing an additional 55,386 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Ares Capital Price Performance

NASDAQ ARCC traded up $0.17 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $20.80. The company had a trading volume of 1,247,939 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,529,236. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.73 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.24. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $20.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of $20.00. Ares Capital Co. has a 52 week low of $17.53 and a 52 week high of $20.86.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The investment management company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 return on equity of 12.50% and a net margin of 58.22%. Ares Capital’s quarterly revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.68 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Capital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.23%. Ares Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 71.91%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on ARCC shares. B. Riley downgraded Ares Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $21.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective 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 reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $21.00 price objective on shares of Ares Capital in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. 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.

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.