Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the seven ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $78.83.

MC has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com cut Moelis & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Moelis & Company from $79.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $92.00 target price (up previously from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th.

Insider Transactions at Moelis & Company

In other news, insider Christopher Callesano sold 1,282 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total transaction of $94,868.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 1,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $90,798. The trade was a 51.10 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Ciafone Katherine Pilcher sold 3,515 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total value of $260,110.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 3,934 shares in the company, valued at $291,116. This trade represents a 47.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,721 shares of company stock valued at $1,677,017 in the last quarter. 6.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moelis & Company

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Moelis & Company by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,147,315 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $601,924,000 after buying an additional 99,766 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Moelis & Company by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,590,316 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $108,973,000 after buying an additional 10,698 shares in the last quarter. Madison Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Moelis & Company in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $86,062,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Moelis & Company by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 935,552 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $69,119,000 after buying an additional 12,632 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Moelis & Company by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 860,125 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $63,546,000 after buying an additional 36,736 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.53% of the company’s stock.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

Moelis & Company stock opened at $68.13 on Tuesday. Moelis & Company has a fifty-two week low of $46.24 and a fifty-two week high of $82.89. The company has a market capitalization of $5.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.71 and a beta of 1.40. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $75.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $72.05.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.79. Moelis & Company had a return on equity of 38.49% and a net margin of 11.39%. As a group, analysts forecast that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Moelis & Company Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is a positive change from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.82%. Moelis & Company’s payout ratio is 147.73%.

About Moelis & Company

Moelis & Co operates as a holding company. It engages in the provision of financial advisory, capital raising and asset management services to a client base including corporations, governments, sovereign wealth funds and financial sponsors. The firm focuses on clients including large public multinational corporations, middle market private companies, financial sponsors, entrepreneurs and governments.