Norges Bank Buys New Stake in Moelis & Company $MC

Norges Bank bought a new stake in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 624,365 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $42,919,000. Norges Bank owned 0.80% of Moelis & Company at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Moelis & Company in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its holdings in Moelis & Company by 89.8% in the 3rd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 389 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. increased its holdings in Moelis & Company by 64.4% in the 4th quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 416 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 163 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP increased its holdings in Moelis & Company by 153.9% in the 3rd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 419 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 254 shares in the last quarter. Finally, eCIO Inc. purchased a new stake in Moelis & Company in the 4th quarter worth $33,000. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on MC shares. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $80.00 to $64.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Moelis & Company from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $70.00 to $62.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Moelis & Company from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $71.89.

Moelis & Company Stock Up 1.2%

Moelis & Company stock opened at $68.67 on Tuesday. Moelis & Company has a 52-week low of $51.06 and a 52-week high of $78.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.70, a PEG ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 1.85. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $64.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $65.69.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The asset manager reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by ($0.09). Moelis & Company had a return on equity of 38.94% and a net margin of 14.46%.The business had revenue of $319.78 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $321.51 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.64 EPS. Moelis & Company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Moelis & Company will post 3.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 11th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.8%. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio is presently 93.53%.

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.