Vanguard Group Inc. Sells 117,172 Shares of Moelis & Company $MC

Vanguard Group Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 8,732,435 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 117,172 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 0.11% of Moelis & Company worth $622,797,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Azora Capital LP bought a new stake in Moelis & Company in the 2nd quarter worth $46,762,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in Moelis & Company by 1,161.8% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 661,594 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $41,231,000 after acquiring an additional 609,162 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Moelis & Company during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $31,248,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 26.0% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,052,862 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $127,947,000 after acquiring an additional 424,138 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tributary Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 91.2% in the 3rd quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC now owns 793,600 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $56,600,000 after purchasing an additional 378,636 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.53% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on MC. UBS Group increased their price objective on Moelis & Company from $70.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded shares of Moelis & Company from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $78.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $80.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $89.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Monday, January 26th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $81.00 target price for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $76.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Moelis & Company news, General Counsel Osamu R. Watanabe sold 2,765 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.23, for a total value of $172,065.95. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel owned 4,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $309,967.63. This trade represents a 35.70% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Moelis & Company Price Performance

Shares of Moelis & Company stock opened at $60.76 on Tuesday. Moelis & Company has a 1 year low of $47.00 and a 1 year high of $78.22. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $71.20 and its 200 day moving average is $69.66. The stock has a market cap of $4.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.67, a PEG ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.87.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The asset manager reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.37. The business had revenue of $487.94 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $430.17 million. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 15.36% and a return on equity of 43.19%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.18 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be given a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.3%. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio is 88.44%.

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. The company was founded by Kenneth David Moelis, Navid Mahmoodzadegan, Jeffrey Raich and Elizabeth Ann Crain in July 2007 and is headquartered in New York, NY.