Royal Bank of Canada Grows Position in Moelis & Company $MC

Royal Bank of Canada grew its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC - Free Report) by 5.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 464,633 shares of the asset manager's stock after acquiring an additional 22,663 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada owned 0.59% of Moelis & Company worth $27,116,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MC. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its holdings 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 during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings 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 worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 745 shares during the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company during the first quarter worth about $59,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 38.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,632 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $95,000 after purchasing an additional 457 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New Age Alpha Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Moelis & Company in the first quarter valued at approximately $107,000. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MC has been the topic of several analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Moelis & Company from $69.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, July 14th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Moelis & Company from $74.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Moelis & Company from $50.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Moelis & Company from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Moelis & Company from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Moelis & Company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $69.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, General Counsel Osamu R. Watanabe sold 6,340 shares of the company's 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 directly owned 131 shares of the company's stock, valued at $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 2,615 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the director directly owned 7,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at $515,544.68. The trade was a 26.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 6.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

Shares of Moelis & Company stock traded up $2.10 on Thursday, reaching $75.39. 200,705 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 897,662. Moelis & Company has a 52 week low of $47.00 and a 52 week high of $82.89. The firm's 50-day moving average is $70.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $62.39. The company has a market capitalization of $5.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.68 and a beta of 1.72.

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

Moelis & Company Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 4th. Moelis & Company's dividend payout ratio is presently 102.36%.

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.