UBS Group Raises Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Price Target to $47.00

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) had its price objective raised by UBS Group from $45.00 to $47.00 in a research note published on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. UBS Group currently has a sell rating on the asset manager’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Moelis & Company from a sell rating to a neutral rating and raised their price target for the company from $53.00 to $58.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Moelis & Company from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. JMP Securities reiterated a market perform rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $46.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a market perform rating and set a $54.00 target price (down from $58.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Moelis & Company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $50.80.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MC opened at $49.75 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $3.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -261.84 and a beta of 1.35. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $54.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $51.64. Moelis & Company has a fifty-two week low of $33.87 and a fifty-two week high of $58.67.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The asset manager reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $217.49 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $219.30 million. Moelis & Company had a negative net margin of 1.33% and a negative return on equity of 0.13%. The business’s revenue was up 17.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.05 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Moelis & Company will post 1.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Moelis & Company Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 20th. Investors of record on Monday, May 6th will be given a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -1,263.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moelis & Company

In other news, CFO Joseph Simon sold 8,149 shares of the 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 $428,637.40. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,573 shares in the company, valued at $450,939.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CFO Joseph Simon sold 8,149 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.60, for a total transaction of $428,637.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,573 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $450,939.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Christopher Callesano sold 1,040 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.59, for a total transaction of $55,733.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 375,185 shares of company stock worth $20,130,225 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 6.96% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Moelis & Company

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MC. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Moelis & Company by 0.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,787,483 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $351,449,000 after purchasing an additional 28,446 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,279,209 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $328,511,000 after purchasing an additional 49,291 shares in the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 3,417,643 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $194,020,000 after purchasing an additional 159,797 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in Moelis & Company by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,374,385 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $189,404,000 after buying an additional 334,620 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Madison Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Moelis & Company by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Madison Asset Management LLC now owns 1,399,649 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $78,562,000 after buying an additional 60,455 shares during the period. 91.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Moelis & Company

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.