Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Given New $77.00 Price Target at Wells Fargo & Company

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) had its target price cut by Wells Fargo & Company from $78.00 to $77.00 in a research report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the asset manager’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Moelis & Company from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $71.00 to $86.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group increased their price target on Moelis & Company from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Moelis & Company from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $92.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $70.67.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

Shares of MC opened at $72.79 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 137.34 and a beta of 1.39. Moelis & Company has a 52 week low of $46.24 and a 52 week high of $81.60. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $74.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $68.83.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $273.76 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $273.58 million. Moelis & Company had a return on equity of 12.15% and a net margin of 4.22%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.15) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Moelis & Company will post 0.96 EPS for the current year.

Moelis & Company Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, November 4th were paid a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 4th. Moelis & Company’s payout ratio is presently 452.83%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 0.7% during the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,190,221 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $408,836,000 after purchasing an additional 47,365 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Moelis & Company by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,590,316 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $108,973,000 after purchasing an additional 10,698 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Moelis & Company by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 922,920 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $63,229,000 after buying an additional 16,830 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Moelis & Company by 13.7% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 804,860 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $55,141,000 after buying an additional 96,720 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Moelis & Company by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 768,945 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $56,810,000 after buying an additional 53,473 shares in the last quarter. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Moelis & Company

Moelis & Company operates as an investment banking advisory firm. It offers advisory services in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations and restructurings, capital markets transactions, and other corporate finance matters, as well as strategic, capital structure, and private funds advisory.