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

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report released on Friday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage presently has a $86.00 price target on the asset manager’s stock, up from their prior price target of $71.00. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ target price points to a potential upside of 16.52% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Moelis & Company from $70.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Moelis & Company from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Moelis & Company from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $92.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Moelis & Company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $70.83.

Moelis & Company Stock Up 2.9 %

Shares of NYSE:MC opened at $73.81 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $5.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 139.26 and a beta of 1.37. Moelis & Company has a 12 month low of $46.24 and a 12 month high of $81.60. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $73.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $66.29.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $273.76 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $273.58 million. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 4.22% and a return on equity of 12.15%. Moelis & Company’s revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.15) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Moelis & Company will post 0.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Moelis & Company

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Sei Investments Co. raised its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 18.2% in the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 305,871 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $17,392,000 after acquiring an additional 47,176 shares during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new stake in Moelis & Company in the third quarter worth $3,433,000. XTX Topco Ltd raised its holdings in Moelis & Company by 274.4% in the second 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 period. Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 13.7% during the third 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 grew its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 129.8% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 13,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $949,000 after buying an additional 7,819 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.53% of the company’s stock.

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.