Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Upgraded by Morgan Stanley to Overweight Rating

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) was upgraded by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report issued on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has a $68.00 target price on the asset manager’s stock, up from their previous target price of $42.00. Morgan Stanley’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 9.32% from the stock’s previous close.

MC has been the topic of a number of other reports. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Moelis & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $55.00 to $52.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. 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 research note on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Moelis & Company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.17.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MC opened at $62.20 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $4.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.53 and a beta of 1.64. Moelis & Company has a 1 year low of $47.00 and a 1 year high of $82.89. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $56.26 and its 200 day moving average price is $64.51.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $306.59 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $309.67 million. Moelis & Company had a return on equity of 40.89% and a net margin of 13.22%. The business’s revenue was up 41.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.22 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moelis & Company

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new position in Moelis & Company in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,784,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Moelis & Company by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 935,552 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $69,119,000 after purchasing an additional 12,632 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Moelis & Company in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,855,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in Moelis & Company by 21.1% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 175,795 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $12,988,000 after purchasing an additional 30,592 shares during the period. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP boosted its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 262.8% in the fourth quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 22,865 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,689,000 after purchasing an additional 16,563 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.53% of the company’s stock.

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.