Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Upgraded to “Outperform” at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) was upgraded by equities researchers at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $86.00 price objective on the asset manager’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $71.00. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ price objective points to a potential upside of 19.91% from the company’s previous close.

MC has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Moelis & Company from $70.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Moelis & Company from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $92.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Moelis & Company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $70.83.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MC opened at $71.72 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $72.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $66.08. Moelis & Company has a 52 week low of $46.24 and a 52 week high of $81.60. The company has a market cap of $5.37 billion, a PE ratio of 135.32 and a beta of 1.37.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $273.76 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $273.58 million. Moelis & Company had a return on equity of 12.15% and a net margin of 4.22%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.15) earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Moelis & Company will post 0.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moelis & Company

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Moelis & Company during the third quarter valued at about $26,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 63.5% during the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 497 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 115.8% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 995 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $68,000 after acquiring an additional 534 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 193.0% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,081 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 712 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. acquired a new stake in Moelis & Company in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $75,000. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.