Moelis & Company $MC Stock Position Increased by State of Alaska Department of Revenue

Key Points

• The State of Alaska Department of Revenue increased its stake in Moelis & Company by 13.0% during Q2, holding around 44,201 shares valued at approximately $2.75 million.
• Insider trading activities included Kenneth Shropshire selling 2,615 shares, reducing his ownership by 26.89%, and Osamu R. Watanabe selling 6,340 shares, which lowered his stake by 97.98%.
• Analysts have raised their price targets for Moelis & Company, with Morgan Stanley setting a new target of $90.00 and Zacks upgrading the stock to a strong-buy rating.

State of Alaska Department of Revenue grew its stake in shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC - Free Report) by 13.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 44,201 shares of the asset manager's stock after buying an additional 5,089 shares during the quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue owned about 0.06% of Moelis & Company worth $2,754,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MC. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 1,460.8% during the first quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 796 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 745 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 8,005.9% during the first 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 during the period. NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Moelis & Company during the first quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Fulton Bank N.A. increased its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 5.8% during the first quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 6,393 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $373,000 after acquiring an additional 350 shares during the period. Finally, Peak Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 2.4% during the first quarter. Peak Financial Advisors LLC now owns 8,567 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $500,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares during the period. 91.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Moelis & Company

In other news, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 2,615 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.52, for a total value of $189,639.80. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 7,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at $515,544.68. This trade represents a 26.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, General Counsel Osamu R. Watanabe sold 6,340 shares of Moelis & Company 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 completion of the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 131 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,515.84. This trade represents a 97.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 6.40% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on MC. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $50.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $74.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Moelis & Company from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $69.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, July 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $69.67.

Moelis & Company Price Performance

Moelis & Company stock opened at $68.70 on Thursday. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $72.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $63.36. The company has a market cap of $5.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.05 and a beta of 1.77. Moelis & Company has a fifty-two week low of $47.00 and a fifty-two week high of $82.89.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $365.38 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $269.57 million. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 14.31% and a return on equity of 42.72%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 38.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.18 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Moelis & Company's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 102.36%.

Moelis & Company 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.

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