Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the seven research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $70.83.

MC has been the subject of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $70.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Moelis & Company from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $71.00 to $86.00 in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Moelis & Company from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th.

Moelis & Company Stock Down 4.3 %

Shares of NYSE:MC opened at $71.52 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $5.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 134.94 and a beta of 1.39. The company’s fifty day moving average is $74.71 and its two-hundred day moving average is $68.60. Moelis & Company has a 12-month low of $46.24 and a 12-month high of $81.60.

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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $273.58 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.15) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Moelis & Company will post 0.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Moelis & Company Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 4th were issued a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 4th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.36%. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 452.83%.

Institutional Trading of Moelis & Company

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Moelis & Company by 0.7% during the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,190,221 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $408,836,000 after purchasing an additional 47,365 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,590,316 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $108,973,000 after buying an additional 10,698 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Moelis & Company by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 922,920 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $63,229,000 after buying an additional 16,830 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 96,720 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in Moelis & Company during the 3rd quarter worth $49,017,000. Institutional investors own 91.53% of the company’s stock.

About Moelis & Company

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.