Osamu Watanabe Sells 2,765 Shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Stock

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) General Counsel Osamu Watanabe sold 2,765 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.23, for a total value of $172,065.95. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 4,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $309,967.63. The trade was a 35.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

MC opened at $62.40 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $4.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.22, a PEG ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.87. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $71.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $69.60. Moelis & Company has a twelve month low of $47.00 and a twelve month high of $78.22.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The asset manager reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.37. The firm had revenue of $487.94 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $430.17 million. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 15.36% and a return on equity of 43.19%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.18 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be given a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.2%. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio is 88.44%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Moelis & Company

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. DGS Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 50.8% during the 4th quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 6,912 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $475,000 after acquiring an additional 2,329 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 141.7% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 17,653 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,213,000 after purchasing an additional 10,349 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its holdings in Moelis & Company by 18.0% in the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 14,962 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,028,000 after purchasing an additional 2,287 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC increased its holdings in Moelis & Company by 16.3% in the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 76,054 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,228,000 after purchasing an additional 10,635 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zacks Investment Management lifted its stake in Moelis & Company by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 31,056 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,135,000 after buying an additional 1,048 shares during the period. 91.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MC has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Moelis & Company from $89.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $80.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $70.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded Moelis & Company from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $78.00 to $80.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on Moelis & Company in a research note on Monday, January 26th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $81.00 target price for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $76.33.

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. The company was founded by Kenneth David Moelis, Navid Mahmoodzadegan, Jeffrey Raich and Elizabeth Ann Crain in July 2007 and is headquartered in New York, NY.