The Goldman Sachs Group Cuts Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Price Target to $62.00

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) had its target price reduced by The Goldman Sachs Group from $71.00 to $62.00 in a research report report published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the asset manager’s stock.

MC has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. UBS Group reissued a “sell” rating and set a $60.00 price objective (up from $58.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Zacks Research upgraded Moelis & Company from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Moelis & Company from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on Moelis & Company from $69.00 to $66.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Moelis & Company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $73.57.

Moelis & Company Trading Down 1.2%

MC stock opened at $56.27 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.91. Moelis & Company has a 12 month low of $51.06 and a 12 month high of $78.22. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $64.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $64.59.

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

Moelis & Company Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 10th were paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 10th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.6%. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 90.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moelis & Company

In other news, General Counsel Osamu Watanabe sold 4,850 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.30, for a total transaction of $336,105.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 131 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,078.30. The trade was a 97.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 1,881 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.06, for a total transaction of $129,901.86. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 7,633 shares in the company, valued at approximately $527,134.98. This represents a 19.77% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 6.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moelis & Company

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wasatch Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 9.0% in the first quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 3,742,624 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $213,330,000 after acquiring an additional 310,001 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in Moelis & Company by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,876,472 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $128,989,000 after purchasing an additional 89,365 shares during the period. Madison Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Moelis & Company during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $109,065,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Moelis & Company by 5.0% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,277,774 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $72,825,000 after purchasing an additional 61,130 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Heard Capital LLC raised its holdings in Moelis & Company by 29.7% during the 4th quarter. Heard Capital LLC now owns 981,510 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $67,469,000 after purchasing an additional 224,970 shares during the last quarter. 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.