ARCC

I bought the dip in Ares Capital Corporation earlier this summer. However, I recently sold my position. I detail why in this article.

Ares Capital (ARCC) has received quite a bit of attention from Zacks.com users lately. Therefore, it is wise to be aware of the facts that can impact the stock's prospects.

Ares Capital remains my top BDC pick, offering a durable 9.6% yield and industry-leading underwriting through credit normalization. Q2 2026 showcased resilient credit metrics, accelerating deal flow, and enhanced funding flexibility, with $6 billion in liquidity and a new commercial paper program. Dividend coverage is robust: NII, TTM core earnings, and $1.38/share spillover reserve support the $0.48 quarterly payout, with 60 consecutive stable or rising payments.

Ares Capital is upgraded to a buy, trading at a rare sub-average premium to NAV and offering a 9.6% dividend yield. ARCC's $1.5B backlog, floating-rate portfolio, and new $1B commercial paper program position it well for a higher-rate environment. Portfolio diversification remains strong, with minimal AI/software risk and robust spillover income supporting distributions.

Certain high-yield investments quietly hand thousands of dollars to the IRS every single year, and most investors holding them in taxable accounts have never stopped to calculate exactly how much they are surrendering before reinvesting a single cent.

When deciding whether to buy, sell, or hold a stock, investors often rely on analyst recommendations. Media reports about rating changes by these brokerage-firm-employed (or sell-side) analysts often influence a stock's price, but are they really important?

Some of the highest-yielding dividend stocks on the market carry a hidden cost that erases thousands of dollars every single year, and the bracket you sit in determines just how severe that damage gets.

At the 24% federal bracket, a $500,000 portfolio built around mortgage REITs, BDCs, and net-lease REITs throws off enough ordinary-income distributions to hand the IRS roughly $13,000 every year in a taxable account.

At the 24% federal bracket, every $10,000 of ordinary dividend income in a taxable brokerage account costs $2,400 in federal tax before it reaches your account. Scale that up: a $50,000 dividend stream costs $12,000 annually.

Business development companies are engineered to move cash out the door: by statute, a BDC must distribute at least 90% of taxable income to shareholders, and the bulk of that income lands on your 1099 as ordinary, not qualified.