Swiss National Bank Raises Stake in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

Swiss National Bank lifted its position in shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) by 0.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 138,400 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 1,000 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank owned approximately 0.18% of Moelis & Company worth $10,225,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in Moelis & Company in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its holdings in Moelis & Company by 148.3% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 822 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 491 shares during the period. AlphaQuest LLC purchased a new stake in Moelis & Company in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $61,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Moelis & Company by 368.2% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,016 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $75,000 after purchasing an additional 799 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Moelis & Company by 18.1% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,175 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $87,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares during the period. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Moelis & Company Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE MC opened at $60.56 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $71.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $71.52. Moelis & Company has a 52 week low of $46.24 and a 52 week high of $82.89. The stock has a market cap of $4.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.41 and a beta of 1.43.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.79. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 11.39% and a return on equity of 38.49%. On average, research analysts expect that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. This is a boost from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.29%. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio is currently 147.73%.

Insider Activity at Moelis & Company

In other Moelis & Company news, General Counsel Osamu R. Watanabe sold 5,661 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total transaction of $418,914.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 6,471 shares in the company, valued at $478,854. The trade was a 46.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 9,712 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total transaction of $718,688.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 209,235 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,483,390. The trade was a 4.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,721 shares of company stock valued at $1,677,017 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MC has been the subject of several research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $92.00 price objective (up from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $86.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 14th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Moelis & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price 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.