Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Given Average Rating of “Reduce” by Analysts

Shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) have been assigned an average rating of “Reduce” from the six research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and four have assigned a hold recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $50.80.

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $56.00 price objective on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Monday, January 29th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Tuesday. StockNews.com raised Moelis & Company from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. UBS Group cut their price target on Moelis & Company from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised Moelis & Company from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $53.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MC opened at $52.05 on Friday. Moelis & Company has a 52 week low of $33.87 and a 52 week high of $58.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.70 billion, a P/E ratio of -144.58 and a beta of 1.35. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $54.70 and its 200 day moving average is $51.03.

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

Moelis & Company Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 20th were paid a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 16th. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio is currently -666.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Moelis & Company news, Vice Chairman Eric Cantor sold 17,857 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.60, for a total value of $939,278.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 195,863 shares in the company, valued at $10,302,393.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Moelis & Company news, Vice Chairman Eric Cantor sold 17,857 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.60, for a total value of $939,278.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 195,863 shares in the company, valued at $10,302,393.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Joseph Simon sold 8,573 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.13, for a total value of $464,056.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 375,185 shares of company stock valued at $20,130,225 over the last ninety days. 6.96% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moelis & Company

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MC. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 5.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 792,729 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $35,776,000 after acquiring an additional 42,424 shares in the last quarter. Teza Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 75.7% during the third quarter. Teza Capital Management LLC now owns 32,538 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,468,000 after acquiring an additional 14,016 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 3.2% during the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 1,111,200 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $50,144,000 after acquiring an additional 34,740 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank increased its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 5.0% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 146,300 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,603,000 after acquiring an additional 7,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 0.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,787,483 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $351,449,000 after acquiring an additional 28,446 shares in the last quarter. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.