Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Reaffirms Market Perform Rating for Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)‘s stock had its “market perform” rating restated by analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $60.00 target price on the asset manager’s stock, up from their prior target price of $54.00. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ target price would indicate a potential downside of 9.50% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on MC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Moelis & Company from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Moelis & Company from $51.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Moelis & Company from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have given a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $56.00.

Moelis & Company Trading Up 5.6 %

Shares of Moelis & Company stock traded up $3.51 on Thursday, reaching $66.30. 186,409 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 601,952. Moelis & Company has a one year low of $38.58 and a one year high of $68.50. The company has a market capitalization of $4.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -347.74 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a 50-day moving average of $57.20 and a 200 day moving average of $55.22.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.07. Moelis & Company had a negative return on equity of 0.12% and a negative net margin of 1.33%. The business had revenue of $264.59 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $227.90 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.04) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 47.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Moelis & Company will post 1.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Moelis & Company

In other news, insider Navid Mahmoodzadegan sold 44,980 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.92, for a total transaction of $2,470,301.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.98, for a total transaction of $2,159,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 42,441 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,290,965.18. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Navid Mahmoodzadegan sold 44,980 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.92, for a total value of $2,470,301.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 6.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Moelis & Company

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of MC. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Moelis & Company in the fourth quarter valued at about $41,720,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in Moelis & Company by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,374,385 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $189,404,000 after buying an additional 334,620 shares in the last quarter. Azora Capital LP bought a new position in Moelis & Company in the fourth quarter valued at about $10,601,000. Wasatch Advisors LP raised its position in Moelis & Company by 4.9% in the first quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 3,417,643 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $194,020,000 after purchasing an additional 159,797 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its position in Moelis & Company by 22.1% in the fourth quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 752,615 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $42,244,000 after purchasing an additional 136,235 shares during the last quarter. 91.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Moelis & Company Company Profile

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.