Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Price Target Cut to $45.00

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) had its price objective lowered by UBS Group from $46.00 to $45.00 in a research note released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. UBS Group currently has a sell rating on the asset manager’s stock.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Moelis & Company from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Moelis & Company from a sell rating to a neutral rating and raised their target price for the company from $53.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a market perform rating and issued a $56.00 target price on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $46.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $50.80.

Moelis & Company Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE MC opened at $56.77 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -157.69 and a beta of 1.35. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $54.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $50.41. Moelis & Company has a 1 year low of $33.87 and a 1 year high of $58.67.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The asset manager reported ($0.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.11) by $0.05. Moelis & Company had a negative net margin of 2.89% and a negative return on equity of 3.82%. The business had revenue of $214.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $197.98 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.33 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Moelis & Company will post 1.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Moelis & Company Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 20th were paid a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 16th. Moelis & Company’s payout ratio is currently -666.67%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 75,000 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.11, for a total transaction of $4,058,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 86,441 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,322.51. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Moelis & Company news, insider Christopher Callesano sold 1,040 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.59, for a total value of $55,733.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 75,000 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.11, for a total transaction of $4,058,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 86,441 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,322.51. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 375,185 shares of company stock valued at $20,130,225. Insiders own 6.96% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,374,385 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $189,404,000 after buying an additional 334,620 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Moelis & Company by 9.0% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 33,338 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,872,000 after purchasing an additional 2,763 shares during the last quarter. Winslow Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Moelis & Company by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Winslow Asset Management Inc. now owns 174,963 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,821,000 after purchasing an additional 2,593 shares during the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Moelis & Company by 50.7% during the fourth quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 18,022 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,012,000 after purchasing an additional 6,065 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Moelis & Company by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 191,399 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,743,000 after purchasing an additional 2,214 shares during the last quarter. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Moelis & Company Company Profile

Moelis & Company operates as an investment banking advisory firm. It offers advisory services in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations and restructurings, capital markets transactions, and other corporate finance matters, as well as strategic, capital structure, and private funds advisory.