Proficio Capital Partners LLC Buys Shares of 137,491 Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 137,491 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $10,158,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company during the 3rd quarter valued at $3,433,000. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 13.7% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 804,860 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $55,141,000 after purchasing an additional 96,720 shares during the last quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company during the 4th quarter valued at $9,149,000. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 129.8% during the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 13,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $949,000 after purchasing an additional 7,819 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 935,552 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $69,119,000 after purchasing an additional 12,632 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.53% of the company’s stock.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

NYSE MC opened at $59.61 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $72.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $71.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.87 and a beta of 1.43. Moelis & Company has a fifty-two week low of $46.24 and a fifty-two week high of $82.89.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.79. Moelis & Company had a return on equity of 38.49% and a net margin of 11.39%. As a group, analysts forecast that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Moelis & Company Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.36%. This is a positive change from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 147.73%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moelis & Company

In other news, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 9,712 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total transaction of $718,688.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 209,235 shares in the company, valued at $15,483,390. This trade represents a 4.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Christopher Callesano sold 1,282 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total value of $94,868.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 1,227 shares in the company, valued at $90,798. This trade represents a 51.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 22,721 shares of company stock worth $1,677,017. Insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on MC shares. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Moelis & Company from $86.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com lowered Moelis & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $70.00 target price (down previously from $100.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $71.83.

Moelis & 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.