Morgan Stanley Cuts Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Price Target to $42.00

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) had its price target cut by Morgan Stanley from $70.00 to $42.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an underweight rating on the asset manager’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also commented on MC. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. 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 report on Thursday, March 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $92.00 price objective (up from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on Moelis & Company from $86.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.50.

Moelis & Company Stock Up 11.1 %

NYSE:MC opened at $54.28 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $4.07 billion, a PE ratio of 30.84 and a beta of 1.53. Moelis & Company has a 12 month low of $46.24 and a 12 month high of $82.89. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $65.33 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $70.40.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last released its quarterly 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%. On average, research analysts expect that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a $0.65 dividend. This is a positive change from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.79%. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio is presently 147.73%.

Insider Activity

In other Moelis & Company news, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 2,551 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.30, for a total value of $184,437.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,940 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $501,762. The trade was a 26.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Christopher Callesano sold 1,282 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now owns 1,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $90,798. This trade represents a 51.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,721 shares of company stock valued at $1,677,017 in the last ninety days. 6.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Moelis & Company

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MC. Fulton Bank N.A. lifted its stake in Moelis & Company by 5.8% in the first quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 6,393 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $373,000 after buying an additional 350 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company during the first quarter worth $59,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Moelis & Company by 8,005.9% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 95,244 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,558,000 after acquiring an additional 94,069 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in Moelis & Company by 1,460.8% in the 1st quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 796 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 745 shares during the period. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its stake in Moelis & Company by 1,551.3% in the 1st quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 644 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 605 shares during the period. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.