Lord Abbett & CO. LLC Decreases Position in Moelis & Company $MC

Key Points

• Lord Abbett & CO. LLC reduced its stake in Moelis & Company by 27.9%, owning approximately 644,943 shares valued at $37.64 million at the end of the first quarter.
• Several institutional investors significantly increased their holdings in Moelis & Company during the same period, with their combined ownership amounting to 91.53% of the company's stock.
• Moelis & Company reported earnings of $0.53 per share, exceeding analysts' expectations, and plans to pay a quarterly dividend of $0.65 per share on September 18.

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC reduced its stake in shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC - Free Report) by 27.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 644,943 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 249,269 shares during the quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC owned approximately 0.82% of Moelis & Company worth $37,639,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MC. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 1,551.3% during the first 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 in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in Moelis & Company by 1,460.8% during the 1st quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 796 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 745 shares during the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Moelis & Company during the 1st quarter valued at about $59,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Moelis & Company by 38.9% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,632 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $95,000 after buying an additional 457 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New Age Alpha Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Moelis & Company in the first quarter valued at about $107,000. Institutional investors own 91.53% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MC has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. JMP Securities restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $50.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $69.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Moelis & Company from an "underweight" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $42.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Moelis & Company from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Moelis & Company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $66.00.

Moelis & Company Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of NYSE MC traded down $1.17 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $70.17. 168,789 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 928,684. The stock has a market cap of $5.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.62 and a beta of 1.70. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $66.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $62.86. 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 issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.21. The firm had revenue of $365.38 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $269.57 million. Moelis & Company had a return on equity of 42.72% and a net margin of 14.31%.The company's revenue was up 38.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.18 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Moelis & Company Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th will be issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 4th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.7%. Moelis & Company's payout ratio is presently 102.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Moelis & Company news, General Counsel Osamu R. Watanabe sold 6,340 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.64, for a total transaction of $460,537.60. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 131 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,515.84. This represents a 97.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 6.40% of the company's stock.

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.