Osamu Watanabe Sells 4,850 Shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Stock

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) General Counsel Osamu Watanabe sold 4,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.30, for a total transaction of $336,105.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel owned 131 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,078.30. This represents a 97.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

NYSE MC opened at $66.53 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $67.41 and a 200-day moving average of $65.05. The stock has a market cap of $5.23 billion, a PE ratio of 23.18, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.84. Moelis & Company has a 52-week low of $51.06 and a 52-week high of $78.22.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The asset manager reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.01. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 14.50% and a return on equity of 39.59%. The business had revenue of $409.39 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $387.27 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.53 EPS. Moelis & Company’s revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Moelis & Company will post 3.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 10th. Moelis & Company’s payout ratio is currently 90.59%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MC. Fulton Bank N.A. raised its position in Moelis & Company by 12.5% during the second quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 6,931 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $453,000 after purchasing an additional 768 shares in the last quarter. Allied Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 20,525 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,343,000 after purchasing an additional 474 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 11.5% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,489 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $97,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Central Pacific Bank Trust Division increased its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 8.0% in the 2nd quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division now owns 2,690 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $176,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. 91.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MC has been the topic of several research reports. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Moelis & Company from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Zacks Research raised Moelis & Company from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on Moelis & Company from $69.00 to $66.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Wall Street Zen raised Moelis & Company from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Moelis & Company from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Moelis & Company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $73.62.

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. The company was founded by Kenneth David Moelis, Navid Mahmoodzadegan, Jeffrey Raich and Elizabeth Ann Crain in July 2007 and is headquartered in New York, NY.