Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Shares Acquired by Bank of America Corp DE

Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) by 14.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 616,604 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 77,224 shares during the quarter. Bank of America Corp DE’s holdings in Moelis & Company were worth $45,555,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC raised its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 52.5% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 398 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 137 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company during the fourth quarter worth about $47,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 148.3% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 822 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 491 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company during the fourth quarter worth about $61,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.53% of the company’s stock.

Moelis & Company Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of NYSE MC opened at $60.66 on Thursday. Moelis & Company has a 12-month low of $47.00 and a 12-month high of $82.89. The stock has a market cap of $4.76 billion, a PE ratio of 34.47 and a beta of 1.66. The company has a 50-day moving average of $55.56 and a 200 day moving average of $67.76.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $306.59 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $309.67 million. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 11.39% and a return on equity of 38.49%. Moelis & Company’s revenue was up 41.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.22 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast 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 Friday, June 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 5th will be issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 5th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.29%. Moelis & Company’s payout ratio is 119.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moelis & Company

In other news, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 9,712 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total value of $718,688.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 209,235 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,483,390. This represents a 4.44% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Ciafone Katherine Pilcher sold 3,515 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total transaction of $260,110.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 3,934 shares in the company, valued at approximately $291,116. This represents a 47.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,721 shares of company stock worth $1,677,017 in the last ninety days. 6.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MC has been the subject of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut 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 note on Thursday, April 24th. StockNews.com cut shares of Moelis & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $70.00 to $42.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $61.83.

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.