Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC Invests $365,000 in Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC)

Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Capital Co. (NASDAQ:ARCC) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 16,693 shares of the investment management company’s stock, valued at approximately $365,000.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Capital in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Promus Capital LLC purchased a new position in Ares Capital during the 4th quarter valued at about $48,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ares Capital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $60,000. Montag A & Associates Inc. increased its holdings in Ares Capital by 92.6% during the fourth quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 2,889 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $63,000 after buying an additional 1,389 shares during the period. Finally, Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. raised its stake in Ares Capital by 200.0% in the fourth quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 3,000 shares of the investment management company’s stock worth $66,000 after buying an additional 2,000 shares in the last quarter. 27.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ARCC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Raymond James cut shares of Ares Capital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. StockNews.com lowered Ares Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Ares Capital from $23.00 to $24.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Ares Capital from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.81.

Ares Capital Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ARCC opened at $20.17 on Wednesday. Ares Capital Co. has a fifty-two week low of $18.26 and a fifty-two week high of $23.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a current ratio of 1.21. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $22.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $21.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.23 and a beta of 0.77.

Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The investment management company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.03). Ares Capital had a net margin of 50.90% and a return on equity of 11.54%. Equities research analysts forecast that Ares Capital Co. will post 2.19 EPS for the current year.

Ares Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.52%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Ares Capital’s payout ratio is 78.37%.

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.