- Pays: quarterly — usually going ex-dividend in mid-March, June, September, and December.
- Paying since: 2004 — through the financial crisis, the pandemic, and every rate cycle between.
- What it is: the largest business development company (BDC) — ARCC lends directly to hundreds of mid-size American companies and pays the interest through to shareholders.
- The current rate: a steady $0.48 per share each quarter ($1.92/year), held consistently since 2022 after years of gradual increases.
- The honest caveat: the yield is real lending income, but credit is cyclical — in a deep recession, borrower defaults rise and BDC dividends historically get cut (ARCC's was, after 2008).
ARCC is a BDC: it must distribute nearly all taxable income, its dividends are taxed mostly as ordinary income, and its fortunes track the credit health of mid-size American businesses.
ARCC pays quarterly. Each point below is one dividend since 2004 — one of the longest records of any high-yield payer we track, including the crisis-era cut and the long climb after.
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Each point is one payment; the line ends at the most recent payout. The table below totals them by year.
| Recent Ex-Dividend Dates | Dividend / Share |
|---|
"Next expected" is estimated from ARCC's recent payment rhythm — the fund announces exact dates shortly before each payout, and the data feed can lag a few days. You must own shares before the ex-dividend date to receive that payout; the cash typically arrives days later. See every fund's upcoming date on the live dividend calendar.
A real total-return estimate, assuming every payout was reinvested — including what happened to the share price. Before taxes and fees. Past performance does not predict the future.
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ARCC earns its dividend the oldest way there is: it lends money — mostly senior, mostly floating-rate loans to established mid-size companies that banks stopped serving after 2008 — and passes the interest to shareholders, as BDC rules require. Two decades of quarterly checks, including a cut in the financial crisis and a decade of gradual raises after, have settled at today's steady $0.48. That steadiness through 2022–25's rate whiplash is the record's most impressive stretch.
The risks are a lender's risks: recessions raise defaults, falling rates trim floating-rate income, and leverage amplifies both directions. And like REITs, BDC dividends arrive mostly as ordinary income — tax rules here — making ARCC a strong candidate for tax-advantaged accounts. The total-return backtest above tells the full story, price and payouts together.
| Year | Total Dividends / Share | Payments | Change vs Prior Year |
|---|
Data source: Yahoo Finance. Figures are per share; the current year may be partial and figures should be verified against official sources.
Calculated from complete calendar years in the data above. Past results don't guarantee future payments.
When Is ARCC's Next Ex-Dividend Date?
ARCC pays quarterly — usually going ex-dividend in mid-March, June, September, and December. The exact date of each payout is announced by the fund only shortly beforehand, so no site can promise the next date — but the live schedule box above shows the most recent ex-dividend date and the expected window for the next one, computed from ARCC's actual payment rhythm. Remember: you must own shares before the ex-dividend date to receive that payout.
ARCC's Record: Twenty Years of Quarterly Checks
Ares Capital Corporation has paid a dividend every quarter since 2004 — a record that spans the financial crisis (when the dividend was cut and then rebuilt), a zero-rate decade, a pandemic, and the fastest hiking cycle in modern history. The recent chapters are the calmest: gradual raises through 2022 to $0.48 per quarter, then simple, unbroken consistency at that level — $1.92 a year on a share price around $19.
What a BDC Actually Does
After 2008, regulation pushed banks out of lending to mid-size businesses — companies too big for a local bank, too small for the bond market. Business development companies filled the gap, and ARCC became the largest of them: a portfolio of hundreds of direct loans, mostly senior-secured and floating-rate, to established firms across the economy. Shareholders effectively own the lending desk: BDC rules require nearly all taxable income to be distributed, which is why the yield sits far above common-stock territory and why the dividend's fate tracks credit conditions rather than a growth story.
Where ARCC Fits
ARCC is an income engine, not a compounder — the dividend has been steady rather than rising lately, and the share price cycles with credit sentiment. It pairs sensibly with dividend growers like SCHD (rising payouts, lower yield) and differs fundamentally from option-income funds: ARCC's checks come from contractual interest, not volatility harvesting, which makes them steadier in calm markets and more exposed in true recessions. Held in an IRA — where its ordinary-income taxation stops mattering — it has been one of the most durable high yields on the market. Next expected date, as always, on the live calendar.
The Tax Rules That Hit BDC Dividends
Ordinary vs. qualified income, and why the account you choose can matter as much as the yield itself.
Read: How Are Dividends Taxed?