Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Upgraded by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods to “Outperform” Rating

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) from a market perform rating to an outperform rating in a research note published on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has $86.00 target price on the asset manager’s stock, up from their previous target price of $71.00.

Several other research analysts have also commented on MC. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Moelis & Company from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $66.00 to $92.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Moelis & Company from $70.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $70.83.

Moelis & Company Trading Up 2.9 %

Shares of MC opened at $73.81 on Friday. Moelis & Company has a 52 week low of $46.24 and a 52 week high of $81.60. The firm has a market cap of $5.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 139.26 and a beta of 1.37. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $73.07 and a 200-day moving average of $66.37.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.02. Moelis & Company had a return on equity of 12.15% and a net margin of 4.22%. The firm had revenue of $273.76 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $273.58 million. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.15) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Moelis & Company will post 0.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 4th were given a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.25%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 4th. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 452.83%.

Institutional Trading of Moelis & Company

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sei Investments Co. raised its position in Moelis & Company by 18.2% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 305,871 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $17,392,000 after acquiring an additional 47,176 shares in the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new position in shares of Moelis & Company in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $3,433,000. XTX Topco Ltd grew its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 274.4% in the 2nd quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 16,524 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $940,000 after purchasing an additional 12,110 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 13.7% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 804,860 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $55,141,000 after purchasing an additional 96,720 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC lifted its stake in Moelis & Company by 129.8% during the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 13,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $949,000 after purchasing an additional 7,819 shares during the last quarter. 91.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Moelis & Company Company Profile

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.