First National Advisers LLC Makes New Investment in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

Key Points

• First National Advisers LLC acquired 7,825 shares of Moelis & Company valued at approximately $457,000 in the first quarter, indicating strong interest from institutional investors.
• Moelis & Company reported earnings of $0.53 per share, surpassing analysts’ estimates of $0.32, with revenue up 38.1% year-over-year to $365.38 million.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.65 per share, which will be paid on September 18th, representing an annualized yield of 3.70%.

First National Advisers LLC bought a new position in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 7,825 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $457,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,147,315 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $601,924,000 after acquiring an additional 99,766 shares during the last quarter. Madison Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 8.5% in the 1st quarter. Madison Asset Management LLC now owns 1,264,200 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $73,779,000 after acquiring an additional 99,313 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 860,125 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $63,546,000 after acquiring an additional 36,736 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in Moelis & Company by 215.5% during the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 723,384 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $53,444,000 after buying an additional 494,123 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Moelis & Company during the 4th quarter valued at about $52,610,000. Institutional investors own 91.53% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on MC shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. JMP Securities reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Moelis & Company from an "underweight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $42.00 to $68.00 in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $69.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $55.00 to $52.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Moelis & Company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $66.00.

Moelis & Company Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of MC stock traded down $1.16 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $70.00. The company's stock had a trading volume of 279,370 shares, compared to its average volume of 954,793. The company has a 50 day moving average of $63.01 and a 200 day moving average of $63.49. The stock has a market cap of $5.50 billion, a PE ratio of 27.54 and a beta of 1.64. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.21. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 14.31% and a return on equity of 42.72%. The firm had revenue of $365.38 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $269.57 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.18 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 38.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th will be given a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 4th. Moelis & Company's dividend payout ratio is presently 102.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Osamu R. Watanabe sold 6,340 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.64, for a total value of $460,537.60. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 131 shares in the company, valued at $9,515.84. This represents a 97.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 6.40% of the company's stock.

Moelis & Company Profile

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.