Morgan Stanley Reiterates Underweight Rating for Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

Morgan Stanley reaffirmed their underweight rating on shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) in a research report report published on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. They currently have a $70.00 price objective on the asset manager’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $100.00.

MC has been the topic of a number of other research reports. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com cut shares of Moelis & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $79.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $92.00 target price (up from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Moelis & Company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $73.83.

Moelis & Company Price Performance

MC stock opened at $58.57 on Thursday. Moelis & Company has a 1 year low of $46.24 and a 1 year high of $82.89. The company has a market cap of $4.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.28 and a beta of 1.43. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $73.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $71.78.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.79. Moelis & Company had a return on equity of 38.49% and a net margin of 11.39%. As a group, analysts expect that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Moelis & Company Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.44%. This is an increase from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio is currently 147.73%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Moelis & Company news, insider Christopher Callesano sold 1,282 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total value of $94,868.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,227 shares in the company, valued at $90,798. This represents a 51.10 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 2,551 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.30, for a total transaction of $184,437.30. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,940 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $501,762. This trade represents a 26.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 22,721 shares of company stock worth $1,677,017. Corporate insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Moelis & Company

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MC. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,147,315 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $601,924,000 after purchasing an additional 99,766 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Moelis & Company by 0.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,590,316 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $108,973,000 after buying an additional 10,698 shares during the last quarter. Madison Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Moelis & Company during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $86,062,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Moelis & Company by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 935,552 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $69,119,000 after acquiring an additional 12,632 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 860,125 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $63,546,000 after acquiring an additional 36,736 shares in the last quarter. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.