Ares Capital Corporation · ARCC · FY2025 Q2 · Calendar Q3 2025

Ares Capital Holds Core Earnings Steady as Portfolio Expands

The call’s evidence supports a measured resilience case: stable core earnings, dividend coverage and portfolio expansion point to ongoing operating capacity, while credit quality, spread pressure and funding decisions remain important tests. It does not establish a forward return outcome.

Reported Before market openNASDAQFinancial Services $14.03B market cap
100quality score

Earnings scorecard

Reported versus consensus
Reported EPS $0.50 Consensus $0.51
EPS surprise -1.2% Reported versus consensus
Reported revenue $579.0M Consensus $748.8M
Revenue surprise -22.7% Reported versus consensus

Market reaction

prior-close to event-session close
Stock move -0.7% Event window
SPY move -0.3% Same window
Abnormal move -0.4% Stock minus SPY
Volume 2.1× Versus trailing sessions
Subsequent drift -1.3% Up to 20 sessions
ARCCSPY benchmark

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Transcript intelligence

What changed

Compared with the prior quarter’s reported dip in core earnings amid lower portfolio yields, management described core earnings as stable at $0.50 per share and emphasized sequential portfolio growth. The call also highlighted realized gains and a planned role in a large private-credit LBO; these are distinct from recurring core earnings.

Guidance delta

Transcript analysis characterizes management’s guidance sentiment as maintained. No quantified change to earnings or other forward guidance is supplied in the analysis.

Key takeaways

  • Core earnings were reported at $0.50 per share and covered the $0.48 dividend.
  • The portfolio expanded to $27.9 billion, with average investment concentration reported at 0.2%.
  • Management cited $6.5 billion in liquidity and no debt maturities through year-end.
  • Net realized gains were $117 million for the quarter; distinguish these gains from recurring core earnings.

Management priorities

  • Expand commitments with incumbent borrowers and broaden the middle-market pipeline.
  • Continue capital raising through notes, revolving-facility expansions and ATM equity issuance.
  • Maintain dividend payouts with spillover income as a support.
  • Develop strategic vehicles including SDLP and Ivy Hill.

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Earnings History

Estimate Beat Miss Match
ARCC EPS earnings history estimate and actual scatter chart 10 reported fiscal quarters and 4 future estimate-only quarters. Q2 '24 estimate $0.58 Q2 '24 actual $0.61, beat Q3 '24 estimate $0.60 Q3 '24 actual $0.58, miss Q2 '25 estimate $0.51 Q2 '25 actual $0.50, match Q3 '25 estimate $0.50 Q3 '25 actual $0.50, match Q4 '25 estimate $0.50 Q4 '25 actual $0.50, match Q1 '26 estimate $0.48 Q1 '26 actual $0.47, miss Q2 '26 estimate $0.47 Q2 '26 actual $0.47, match Q3 '26 estimate $0.48 Q3 '26 actual $0.46, miss Q4 '26 estimate $0.48 Q1 '27 estimate $0.48 Q2 '27 estimate $0.48 Q3 '27 estimate $0.49
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Analyst Consensus ?

ConsensusBuy32 ratings
Bullish2578.1%
Neutral721.9%
Bearish00.0%

Analyst 52W Price Targets

$19.42Previous close
$19Low
$21.71Average
$24High

Latest persisted target per named analyst; persisted previous close from FN2's market snapshot as of Nov 3, 2026. Not an FN2 forecast.

Firm-level rating actions

FMP grade actions identify the grading firm, not a named analyst.

FirmRatingPrior ratingActionDate
UBS Buy NeutralUpgradeOct 29, 2026
Truist Securities Buy BuyMaintainJul 30, 2026
Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Outperform OutperformMaintainJul 30, 2026
JP Morgan Overweight OverweightMaintainJul 2, 2026
Wells Fargo Equal Weight OverweightDowngradeJun 12, 2026
Show 27 more rating actions

Named analyst price targets

Upside is calculated against the persisted previous close $19.42. FMP does not supply a rating on these named-analyst rows.

FirmAnalyst52W targetPrice when postedUpsideDate
Wells FargoFinian O'Shea$19$19.07 -2.2%Jun 12, 2026
RBC CapitalAnalyst unavailable$23$20.8 +18.4%Oct 29, 2025
Wells FargoFinian O'Shea$21$20.57 +8.1%Oct 29, 2025
UBSAnalyst unavailable$21$19.44 +8.1%Oct 14, 2025
Capital One FinancialAnalyst unavailable$22.5$19.1 +15.9%Oct 10, 2025
See 13 more

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Company context

Snapshot as of publication

Ares Capital Corporation (ARCC) operates as a Business Development Company (BDC), delivering diverse financing solutions predominantly to middle-market enterprises. The firm's expertise lies in facilitating various corporate actions, including funding acquisitions, recapitalizations, and leveraged buyouts. It also extends mezzanine debt, assists with corporate restructurings, and provides crucial rescue financing, in addition to offering growth capital and general refinancing options. ARCC primarily targets investments in companies within the basic and growth manufacturing, business services, consumer products, healthcare (both products and services), and information technology service sectors. Opportunistically, it also explores prospects in industries such as restaurants, retail, oil and gas, and the broader technology space. Geographically, ARCC maintains a broad reach across the United States. Its New York office oversees investments in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and Southwest regions.…

Historical context

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Financial Services peers this season

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Sources

  1. Earnings call transcript and parsed analysis · 2026-05-11T10:29:34.698584+00:00
  2. FN2 earnings calendar · 2026-07-26T00:37:55.686058+00:00
  3. Polygon adjusted daily market bars · 2026-11-03T11:00:51.468578+00:00
  4. Financial Modeling Prep analyst price-target consensus and quote snapshot · 2026-11-03T11:00:51.465673+00:00

Methodology

Reported and consensus figures come from FN2's earnings event records. Market reaction and volume are calculated from daily adjusted bars around the event; abnormal move subtracts the SPY move over the same window.

Analyst target low, average, and high values are derived at request time from each named analyst's latest persisted FMP target. The current-price marker comes from FN2's persisted market snapshot. They are sell-side estimates, not an FN2 valuation or recommendation.

Transcript intelligence is a structured synthesis of the current and prior earnings-call analyses. Missing values stay missing and are never estimated.

By FN2 Research · Updated · As of 2026-11-03. For educational purposes only; not investment advice.