Bank of America Corp DE Purchases 77,224 Shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC - Free Report) by 14.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 616,604 shares of the asset manager's stock after acquiring an additional 77,224 shares during the quarter. Bank of America Corp DE owned approximately 0.82% of Moelis & Company worth $45,555,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its holdings in Moelis & Company by 52.5% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 398 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 137 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Moelis & Company during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in Moelis & Company during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its holdings in Moelis & Company by 148.3% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 822 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 491 shares during the period. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC purchased a new position in Moelis & Company during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $61,000. 91.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on MC. JMP Securities restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $70.00 to $42.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $55.00 to $52.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Moelis & Company from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $61.83.

Insider Activity at Moelis & Company

In related news, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 9,712 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total transaction of $718,688.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 209,235 shares in the company, valued at $15,483,390. The trade was a 4.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 2,551 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.30, for a total transaction of $184,437.30. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,940 shares of the company's stock, valued at $501,762. This represents a 26.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 22,721 shares of company stock worth $1,677,017 over the last three months. Company insiders own 6.40% of the company's stock.

Moelis & Company Trading Down 0.8%

NYSE MC opened at $60.66 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $55.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $67.76. The stock has a market cap of $4.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.47 and a beta of 1.66. Moelis & Company has a 12-month low of $47.00 and a 12-month high of $82.89.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $306.59 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $309.67 million. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 11.39% and a return on equity of 38.49%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 41.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.22 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Moelis & Company Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 20th. Investors of record on Monday, May 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 5th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.29%. Moelis & Company's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 119.27%.

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.

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