Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Now Covered by BMO Capital Markets

BMO Capital Markets started coverage on shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) in a research note released on Friday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued a market perform rating and a $74.00 target price on the asset manager’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on MC. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Moelis & Company from $74.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $50.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Moelis & Company from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $69.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $70.29.

Moelis & Company Trading Down 0.7%

MC stock opened at $68.34 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $5.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.91 and a beta of 1.77. Moelis & Company has a 12 month low of $47.00 and a 12 month high of $82.89. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $72.11 and a two-hundred day moving average of $63.48.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $365.38 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $269.57 million. Moelis & Company had a return on equity of 42.72% and a net margin of 14.31%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 38.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.18 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast 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 was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio is presently 102.36%.

Insider Activity

In other Moelis & Company news, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 2,615 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.52, for a total transaction of $189,639.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 7,109 shares in the company, valued at $515,544.68. This trade represents a 26.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Osamu R. Watanabe sold 6,340 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.64, for a total transaction of $460,537.60. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 131 shares in the company, valued at $9,515.84. This trade represents a 97.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 38.9% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $95,000 after buying an additional 457 shares in the last quarter. Versor Investments LP purchased a new position in Moelis & Company during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,432,000. Diversify Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Moelis & Company by 29.4% during the 1st quarter. Diversify Wealth Management LLC now owns 76,298 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,067,000 after acquiring an additional 17,322 shares during the period. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc acquired a new position in Moelis & Company in the 1st quarter valued at about $334,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Moelis & Company by 1.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,305,688 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $484,720,000 after purchasing an additional 158,373 shares during the period. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.