Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Upgraded to “Moderate Buy” at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) from a hold rating to a moderate buy rating in a research report report published on Wednesday morning,Zacks reports.

MC has been the subject of several other research reports. Zacks Research raised shares of Moelis & Company from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Moelis & Company from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. UBS Group raised shares of Moelis & Company from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $60.00 to $59.00 in a report on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen upgraded Moelis & Company from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Moelis & Company from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday, October 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Moelis & Company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $73.43.

Moelis & Company Price Performance

Moelis & Company stock opened at $56.12 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $64.22 and its 200 day moving average is $64.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.39 billion, a PE ratio of 19.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 1.91. Moelis & Company has a one year low of $51.06 and a one year high of $78.22.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The asset manager reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.01. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 14.50% and a return on equity of 39.59%. The firm had revenue of $409.39 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $387.27 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.53 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Moelis & Company will post 3.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 10th were issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 10th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.6%. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio is currently 90.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moelis & Company

In other news, General Counsel Osamu R. Watanabe sold 4,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.30, for a total value of $336,105.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel owned 131 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,078.30. This trade represents a 97.37% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 1,881 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.06, for a total value of $129,901.86. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 7,633 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $527,134.98. This represents a 19.77% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 6.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Madison Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company during the 2nd quarter valued at about $109,065,000. Junto Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company during the second quarter worth approximately $31,529,000. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH acquired a new stake in Moelis & Company during the 1st quarter worth $21,701,000. Wasatch Advisors LP boosted its stake in Moelis & Company by 9.0% during the 1st quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 3,742,624 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $213,330,000 after purchasing an additional 310,001 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company during the first quarter worth $15,615,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.53% of the company’s stock.

Moelis & Company Company Profile

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) is an independent global investment bank that provides strategic and financial advisory services to corporations, financial sponsors, governments and other institutions. The firm advises clients on mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, recapitalizations, restructurings, liability management, capital raising and other complex financial transactions.

Moelis & Company serves clients across a range of industries, including technology, media and telecommunications; consumer and retail; energy and infrastructure; financial services; healthcare; industrials; and real estate.