Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Increases Dividend to $0.65 Per Share

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 5th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of 0.65 per share by the asset manager on Thursday, March 27th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This is a positive change from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60.

Moelis & Company has increased its dividend by an average of 1.4% per year over the last three years. Moelis & Company has a dividend payout ratio of 69.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Moelis & Company to earn $2.57 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 93.4%.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

Shares of Moelis & Company stock traded up $1.56 on Thursday, reaching $81.24. The company had a trading volume of 1,525,641 shares, compared to its average volume of 748,264. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $75.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $70.67. Moelis & Company has a 52-week low of $46.24 and a 52-week high of $82.89. The firm has a market cap of $6.09 billion, a PE ratio of 153.29 and a beta of 1.40.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.18 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.79. Moelis & Company had a return on equity of 12.15% and a net margin of 4.22%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Moelis & Company will post 1.05 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on MC. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Moelis & Company from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $79.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $92.00 price target (up previously from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $78.83.

About Moelis & Company

Moelis & Company operates as an investment banking advisory firm. It offers advisory services in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations and restructurings, capital markets transactions, and other corporate finance matters, as well as strategic, capital structure, and private funds advisory.