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Ares Capital Corp, with the ticker ARCC, is a mid-cap asset management company operating in the financial services business sector. This is the first of five financial services candidates competing for the forty-third slot in the Viital folio. It is my first report on Areas Capital Corp for my Viital portfolio or any of my previous six portfolios.

Ares Capital Corp is a United States-based business development company, headquartered in Los Angeles, CA. Its investment objective is to generate both current income and capital appreciation through debt and equity investments.

The company focuses on investing primarily in U.S. middle-market companies with investment opportunities as well as in larger companies. Its portfolio includes first lien senior secured loans, second lien senior secured loans, and mezzanine debt (subordinated unsecured loan), which may include equity components that are diversified by industry and sector.

The company may invest in preferred and common equity investments to a lesser proportion. Its revenue mainly consists of interest and dividend income received from the investments.

It focuses on investments in Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast and Southwest regions from its New York office, the Midwest region, from the Chicago office, and the Western region from the Los Angeles office.

Three key data points gauge any dividend equity or fund such as Ares Capital Corp.

(1) Price (2) Dividends (3) Returns

Those three basic keys best tell whether any company has made, is making, and will make money.

ARCC Price

Ares’s price per share was $19.36 as of Friday's market close. One year ago its price was $20.03. That means  ARCC share price fell $0.67 or about 3.3% in the past year.

If Ares’s stock trades in the range of $15.00 to $25.00 this next year, its recent $19.36 share price might rise by $2.64 to reach $22.00 by next year. My $2.64 upside estimate is based on the median of one-year price targets set by fourteen analysts covering Ares Capital. Their valuation was $0.29 higher,

ARCC Dividends

Ares’s most recently declared quarterly dividend of $0.45 was paid June 30th, to shareholders on record as of June 14th.

Since January 6, 2005, Ares has paid variable quarterly dividends.  The current forward looking annual dividend of $0.96 equates to an annual yield of 4.96% as of Friday's $19.36 share price.

ARCC Returns

Adding the $0.96 Ares annual forward-looking dividend to my estimated one-year price upside estimate of $2.64 shows a $3.60 potential gross gain, per share, to be reduced by any costs to trade ARCC shares.

At Friday's $19.36 closing price, a little over $1000 would buy 52 shares.

A $10 broker fee (if charged) would be paid half at purchase and half at sale and might cost us about $0.19 per share.

Subtract that maybe $0.19 brokerage cost from my estimated $3.60 gross gain estimate per share results in a net gain of $3.41 X 52 shares = $177.32, for a 17.7% net gain including a 4.96% forward looking annual dividend yield.

Over the next year our $1K investment in ARCC shares should generate $49.60 in cash dividends. Of course, a single share of ARCC stock bought at Friday's $19.36 price is over two and one-half times less than the dividend income from our $1000.00 investment.

So, by my dogcatcher ideal, this a prime time to pick up Ares Capital Corporation shares based on their forward looking dividends for the year 2022. The forthcoming annual dividend from $1K invested is 2.56 times more than yesterday’s single share price. Consider yourself alerted. It's a sign.

All of the estimates above are speculation based on the past history of Ares Capital Corporation. Only time and money invested in this stock will determine its market value.

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