Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Earns Market Perform Rating from Analysts at BMO Capital Markets

BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) in a report issued on Friday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage issued a market perform rating and a $74.00 price target on the asset manager’s stock.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $50.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Moelis & Company from $69.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Zacks Research raised Moelis & Company from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Moelis & Company from $74.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $70.29.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

NYSE:MC opened at $68.34 on Friday. Moelis & Company has a fifty-two week low of $47.00 and a fifty-two week high of $82.89. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $72.11 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $63.52. The company has a market capitalization of $5.36 billion, a PE ratio of 26.91 and a beta of 1.77.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.21. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 14.31% and a return on equity of 42.72%. The company had revenue of $365.38 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $269.57 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.18 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 38.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Moelis & Company Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were given a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Moelis & Company’s payout ratio is presently 102.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Moelis & Company news, General Counsel Osamu R. Watanabe sold 6,340 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.64, for a total value of $460,537.60. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 131 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,515.84. This represents a 97.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 2,615 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the director directly owned 7,109 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $515,544.68. This trade represents a 26.89% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 6.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 8,005.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 95,244 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,558,000 after acquiring an additional 94,069 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Moelis & Company during the 1st quarter valued at about $59,000. Portside Wealth Group LLC bought a new stake in Moelis & Company during the 1st quarter worth approximately $165,000. Impact Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in Moelis & Company by 10.5% during the 1st quarter. Impact Capital Partners LLC now owns 12,257 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $715,000 after purchasing an additional 1,160 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 13.8% in the first quarter. Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 66,893 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,904,000 after purchasing an additional 8,107 shares during the last quarter. 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.