Kestra Investment Management LLC Buys Shares of 1,971 Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

Kestra Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 1,971 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $146,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Moelis & Company by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,812 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $946,000 after purchasing an additional 172 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 18.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,175 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $87,000 after buying an additional 180 shares during the period. Choreo LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 4,831 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $358,000 after buying an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. Heritage Family Offices LLP boosted its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Heritage Family Offices LLP now owns 4,464 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $330,000 after acquiring an additional 213 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Moelis & Company by 0.4% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 62,570 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,287,000 after acquiring an additional 220 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.53% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com downgraded Moelis & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $92.00 target price (up from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $79.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Moelis & Company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $78.83.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

MC stock opened at $73.60 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $5.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.82 and a beta of 1.40. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $75.79 and its 200 day moving average is $71.50. Moelis & Company has a 52 week low of $46.24 and a 52 week high of $82.89.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. As a group, analysts forecast that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Moelis & Company Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a $0.65 dividend. This is a boost from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.53%. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 147.73%.

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.