BNP Paribas Financial Markets Sells 19,584 Shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

BNP Paribas Financial Markets reduced its stake in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) by 46.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,942 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 19,584 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets’ holdings in Moelis & Company were worth $1,695,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MC. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 52.5% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 398 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 137 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Moelis & Company during the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Moelis & Company during the fourth quarter valued at about $47,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 148.3% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 822 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 491 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC acquired a new position in shares of Moelis & Company during the fourth quarter valued at about $61,000. 91.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $55.00 to $52.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and set a $92.00 price target (up from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $70.00 to $42.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $59.83.

Moelis & Company Stock Up 0.9%

MC opened at $61.61 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.00 and a beta of 1.66. Moelis & Company has a twelve month low of $47.00 and a twelve month high of $82.89. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $55.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $67.68.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $306.59 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $309.67 million. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 11.39% and a return on equity of 38.49%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 41.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.22 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Moelis & Company Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 5th will be paid a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 5th. Moelis & Company’s payout ratio is 119.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moelis & Company

In related news, insider Christopher Callesano sold 1,282 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total transaction of $94,868.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,227 shares in the company, valued at approximately $90,798. This represents a 51.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 9,712 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total transaction of $718,688.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 209,235 shares in the company, valued at $15,483,390. The trade was a 4.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 22,721 shares of company stock worth $1,677,017 over the last three months. 6.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.