Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Receives $50.80 Average Target Price from Brokerages

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) has been given an average recommendation of “Reduce” by the six analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and four have assigned a hold recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $50.80.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MC. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $54.00 target price (down previously from $58.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a report on Thursday, April 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Moelis & Company from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $53.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

Shares of MC opened at $56.86 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $54.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $54.60. The company has a market capitalization of $4.25 billion, a P/E ratio of -299.26 and a beta of 1.35. Moelis & Company has a fifty-two week low of $38.58 and a fifty-two week high of $58.67.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The asset manager reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $217.49 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $219.30 million. Moelis & Company had a negative net margin of 1.33% and a negative return on equity of 0.12%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.05 EPS. Analysts forecast that Moelis & Company will post 1.29 EPS for the current year.

Moelis & Company Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 6th were given a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 3rd. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.22%. Moelis & Company’s payout ratio is currently -1,263.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moelis & Company

In other Moelis & Company news, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.98, for a total value of $2,159,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 42,441 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,290,965.18. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, insider Navid Mahmoodzadegan sold 44,980 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.92, for a total value of $2,470,301.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.98, for a total transaction of $2,159,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 42,441 shares in the company, valued at $2,290,965.18. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 6.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Moelis & Company

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Gabelli Funds LLC boosted its position in Moelis & Company by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 26,550 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,490,000 after acquiring an additional 950 shares during the last quarter. Evoke Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Moelis & Company in the 4th quarter valued at $3,079,000. Natixis Advisors L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 19.0% in the 4th quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 146,449 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $8,219,000 after purchasing an additional 23,426 shares during the last quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 26.8% in the 4th quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 96,568 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,420,000 after purchasing an additional 20,413 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Heritage Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Moelis & Company in the 4th quarter valued at $276,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.