Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Cuts Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Price Target to $78.00

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) had its price target trimmed by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $80.00 to $78.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the asset manager’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also commented on MC. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on Moelis & Company in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $74.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $74.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 8th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Moelis & Company from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $50.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $71.57.

Moelis & Company Price Performance

MC opened at $63.32 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.97 billion, a PE ratio of 21.18 and a beta of 1.77. Moelis & Company has a fifty-two week low of $47.00 and a fifty-two week high of $82.89. The company’s 50-day moving average is $70.67 and its 200 day moving average is $65.22.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The asset manager reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $356.89 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $336.14 million. Moelis & Company had a return on equity of 47.11% and a net margin of 15.98%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 30.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.22 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Moelis & Company Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 4th. Investors of record on Monday, November 10th will be issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 10th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.1%. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 102.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moelis & Company

In other news, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 2,615 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.52, for a total value of $189,639.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 7,109 shares in the company, valued at $515,544.68. This trade represents a 26.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 6.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 38.9% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $95,000 after purchasing an additional 457 shares in the last quarter. Versor Investments LP purchased a new position in Moelis & Company during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,432,000. Diversify Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Moelis & Company by 29.4% during the first quarter. Diversify Wealth Management LLC now owns 76,298 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,067,000 after acquiring an additional 17,322 shares in the last quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc purchased a new position in Moelis & Company during the first quarter valued at approximately $334,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Moelis & Company by 1.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,305,688 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $484,720,000 after acquiring an additional 158,373 shares in the last quarter. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Moelis & Company Company Profile

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.