Norges Bank Invests $42.92 Million in Moelis & Company $MC

Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 624,365 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $42,919,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MC. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC grew its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 9.9% in the first quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 4,799 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $280,000 after purchasing an additional 432 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 4.6% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 42,080 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,456,000 after purchasing an additional 1,839 shares during the period. United Services Automobile Association purchased a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company in the first quarter valued at about $264,000. Empowered Funds LLC grew its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 37.6% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 42,828 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,499,000 after purchasing an additional 11,692 shares during the period. Finally, Creative Planning grew its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 14.2% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 6,639 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $414,000 after purchasing an additional 827 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.53% of the company’s stock.

Moelis & Company Price Performance

NYSE MC opened at $68.67 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $64.48 and its two-hundred day moving average is $65.69. Moelis & Company has a 12 month low of $51.06 and a 12 month high of $78.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.70, a PEG ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 1.85.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The asset manager reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by ($0.09). Moelis & Company had a net margin of 14.46% and a return on equity of 38.94%. The company had revenue of $319.78 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $321.51 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.64 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Moelis & Company will post 3.17 EPS for the current year.

Moelis & Company Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 11th will be given a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 11th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio is presently 93.53%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MC. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Moelis & Company from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $70.00 to $62.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $90.00 to $83.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Moelis & Company from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $71.89.

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.