Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Hold" from Analysts

Key Points

• Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) has received an average analyst rating of "Hold," with one sell, four hold, and two buy recommendations from seven firms covering the stock.
• The company reported earnings of $0.53 per share for the last quarter, exceeding expectations, alongside a revenue of $365.38 million, which is a 38.1% increase year-over-year.
• Moelis & Company has announced a quarterly dividend of $0.65, with an annualized yield of 3.8%, despite a high dividend payout ratio of 102.36%.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC - Get Free Report) has been assigned an average recommendation of "Hold" from the seven research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $66.00.

A number of research firms have recently commented on MC. Wells Fargo & Company upped 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 shares of Moelis & Company from an "underweight" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $42.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped 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 report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th.

Insider Transactions at Moelis & Company

In other 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 completion of the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 131 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,515.84. This represents a 97.98% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 6.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Moelis & Company

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MC. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in 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. Diversify Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Moelis & Company by 29.4% during the first quarter. Diversify Wealth Management LLC now owns 76,298 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $4,067,000 after purchasing an additional 17,322 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc bought a new position in Moelis & Company during the first quarter worth $334,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in Moelis & Company by 64.3% during the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 253,658 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $14,803,000 after purchasing an additional 99,316 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Moelis & Company during the first quarter worth $3,331,000. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Moelis & Company Trading Up 1.9%

Shares of NYSE MC traded up $1.29 on Friday, reaching $69.22. 163,075 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 953,254. Moelis & Company has a fifty-two week low of $47.00 and a fifty-two week high of $82.89. The company has a 50 day moving average of $63.52 and a 200 day moving average of $63.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.43 billion, a PE ratio of 27.25 and a beta of 1.70.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $365.38 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $269.57 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.18 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 38.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Moelis & Company Dividend Announcement

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 given a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 4th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.8%. 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.