Lazard Asset Management LLC Boosts Stock Position in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) by 31.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 31,400 shares of the investment management company’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,547 shares during the quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Ares Capital were worth $687,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Montag & Caldwell LLC bought a new position in Ares Capital in the 4th quarter worth $33,000. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in Ares Capital in the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Promus Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Ares Capital in the fourth quarter worth about $48,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Ares Capital in the fourth quarter worth about $60,000. Finally, Montag A & Associates Inc. boosted its position in Ares Capital by 92.6% during the 4th quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 2,889 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $63,000 after acquiring an additional 1,389 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ARCC has been the topic of several recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Ares Capital from $24.50 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Raymond James downgraded shares of Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.00.

Ares Capital Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of ARCC stock opened at $21.99 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03. Ares Capital Co. has a 12 month low of $18.26 and a 12 month high of $23.84. The stock has a market cap of $15.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.98 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $21.05 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $21.91.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The investment management company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.54 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $599.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $769.32 million. Ares Capital had a return on equity of 11.54% and a net margin of 50.90%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.59 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be given a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.73%. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is currently 93.66%.

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.