Ares Capital Corp

Ares Capital closed out Q4 2025 with a narrow but meaningful earnings beat, posting core EPS of $0.50 against a consensus estimate of $0.4981 — a 0.38% beat — while revenue of $793.00 million fell well short of the $1.37 billion analysts had expected, a miss of 42.28%, even as total investment income climbed 39.9% year-over-year. The central story behind the quarter was credit pressure: GAAP earnings declined to $293.00 million ($0.41 per share) from $357.00 million a year ago, dragged down by $155.00 million in net realized losses versus just $29.00 million in Q4 2024. Still, core EPS comfortably covered the $0.48 quarterly dividend, a threshold management has consistently defended. The company also delivered record gross commitments of $5.83 billion in the quarter, with 80% in first lien senior secured loans, and grew its portfolio to $29.48 billion across 603 companies. With an investment backlog of approximately $2.20 billion as of late January 2026 and the CFO recently purchasing shares in the open market — a signal of internal conviction — Ares Capital enters 2026 with its pipeline intact and its credit quality holding steady at a 1.8% non-accrual rate.