Ares Capital Corporation · ARCC · FY2026 Q1 · Calendar Q2 2026

ARCC: Stable dividend and liquidity offset spread and credit risks

The quarter supports a resilience case for ARCC: stable core earnings and dividend payments, low non-accruals, wider spreads on new deals and substantial liquidity provide support. The countercase is that spread widening, refinancing pressure, economic weakness and software-related AI disruption could weigh on marks and credit quality.

Reported Before market openNASDAQFinancial Services $13.80B market cap
90quality score

Earnings scorecard

Reported versus consensus
Reported EPS $0.47 Consensus $0.48
EPS surprise -2.6% Reported versus consensus
Reported revenue $763.0M Consensus $778.0M
Revenue surprise -1.9% Reported versus consensus

Market reaction

prior-close to event-session close
Stock move +1.7% Event window
SPY move -0.5% Same window
Abnormal move +2.2% Stock minus SPY
Volume 0.9× Versus trailing sessions
Subsequent drift -0.3% Up to 20 sessions
ARCCSPY benchmark

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Transcript intelligence

What changed

Management highlighted better economics on new originations from wider spreads and higher fees, alongside a third-party AI risk assessment of the software portfolio. The company also disclosed approximately $6 billion of liquidity and continued to emphasize refinancing and maturity management.

Guidance delta

Guidance sentiment was maintained. Management planned to keep dividend payments stable, deploy capital opportunistically, monitor AI exposure in software and consider additional unsecured funding as market conditions allow.

Key takeaways

  • Core earnings were $0.47 per share and the dividend was $0.48 despite a GAAP EPS decline.
  • Portfolio non-accruals remained low at 2.1% at cost and 1.2% at fair value.
  • Management cited wider spreads and higher fees as improving new-deal economics.
  • Liquidity was approximately $6 billion, supporting capital deployment and dividend stability.

Management priorities

  • Maintain stable quarterly dividend payments.
  • Deploy capital opportunistically in new and existing portfolio companies.
  • Extend loan maturities where appropriate and manage refinancing risk.

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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

$19.11Current
$19Low
$21.71Average
$24High

Latest persisted target per named analyst; persisted current price from FN2's market snapshot as of Nov 1, 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
RBC Capital Outperform OutperformMaintainApr 29, 2026
Citizens Market Outperform Market OutperformMaintainApr 22, 2026
JMP Securities Market Outperform Market OutperformMaintainJul 31, 2025
B. Riley Securities Buy NeutralUpgradeJul 30, 2025
Raymond James Market Perform OutperformDowngradeFeb 6, 2025
Oppenheimer Outperform OutperformMaintainMay 2, 2024
Citigroup Buy BuyMaintainJul 26, 2023
Janney Montgomery Scott Buy BuyMaintainDec 3, 2021
Wedbush Outperform OutperformMaintainApr 29, 2021
Barclays Equal Weight OverweightDowngradeDec 10, 2020
Janney Capital Buy NeutralUpgradeOct 27, 2020
B of A Securities Buy NeutralUpgradeApr 13, 2020
Compass Point Buy NeutralUpgradeApr 2, 2020
BMO Capital Outperform Market PerformUpgradeAug 19, 2019
Keefe Bruyette & Woods Outperform OutperformMaintainAug 4, 2016
National Securities Neutral NeutralMaintainJun 28, 2016
Jefferies Buy BuyMaintainFeb 25, 2016
Macquarie Outperform NeutralUpgradeOct 1, 2015
DA Davidson Buy BuyMaintainSep 29, 2015
Cantor Fitzgerald Hold HoldMaintainSep 3, 2015
Keefe, Bruyette& Woods Outperform Market PerformUpgradeJun 17, 2015
BB&T Capital Hold BuyDowngradeMay 4, 2015
Sterne Agee Buy BuyMaintainAug 20, 2013
Bank of America Neutral BuyDowngradeMar 4, 2013
Stifel Nicolaus Buy BuyMaintainNov 6, 2012
Stifel Buy BuyMaintainNov 6, 2012
Ladenburg Thalmann Buy BuyMaintainMay 8, 2012
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Named analyst price targets

Upside is calculated against the persisted current price $19.11. FMP does not supply a rating on these named-analyst rows.

FirmAnalyst52W targetPrice when postedUpsideDate
Wells FargoFinian O'Shea$19$19.07 -0.6%Jun 12, 2026
RBC CapitalAnalyst unavailable$23$20.8 +20.4%Oct 29, 2025
Wells FargoFinian O'Shea$21$20.57 +9.9%Oct 29, 2025
UBSAnalyst unavailable$21$19.44 +9.9%Oct 14, 2025
Capital One FinancialAnalyst unavailable$22.5$19.1 +17.7%Oct 10, 2025
JMP SecuritiesAnalyst unavailable$23$22.66 +20.4%Jul 31, 2025
B.Riley FinancialSean-Paul Adams$23.5$22.54 +23.0%Jul 30, 2025
JMP SecuritiesDevin Ryan$22$20.89 +15.1%Jul 30, 2024
UBSDoug Harter$22$21.07 +15.1%Jul 18, 2024
RBC CapitalKanneth Lee$22$21.3 +15.1%May 23, 2024
CitigroupAnalyst unavailable$22$20.02 +15.1%Feb 8, 2023
J.P. MorganAnalyst unavailable$20.5$20.04 +7.3%Feb 8, 2023
Wells FargoAnalyst unavailable$21.5$19.8 +12.5%Apr 27, 2022
Hovde GroupBryce Rowe$21$19.8 +9.9%Apr 27, 2022
Wells FargoAnalyst unavailable$23$21.81 +20.4%Apr 25, 2022
JefferiesJohn Hecht$24$20.5 +25.6%Oct 26, 2021
BarclaysMark Devries$20$18.64 +4.7%Jul 29, 2021
WedbushHenry Coffey$21$18.04 +9.9%Apr 29, 2021
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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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Sources

  1. Earnings call transcript and parsed analysis · 2026-05-11T10:29:34.698584+00:00
  2. FN2 earnings calendar · 2026-07-26T00:37:12.209961+00:00
  3. Polygon adjusted daily market bars · 2026-11-01T00:20:43.161584+00:00
  4. Financial Modeling Prep analyst price-target consensus and quote snapshot · 2026-11-01T00:20:43.158779+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 2026-11-01. For educational purposes only; not investment advice.