Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Receives “Market Perform” Rating from JMP Securities

JMP Securities reaffirmed their market perform rating on shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Moelis & Company from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Moelis & Company from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $71.00 to $86.00 in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Moelis & Company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $78.83.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

MC opened at $81.24 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 153.29 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a fifty day moving average of $75.40 and a 200 day moving average of $70.67. 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 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.79. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 4.22% and a return on equity of 12.15%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Moelis & Company will post 1.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Moelis & Company Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is a positive change from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. Moelis & Company’s payout ratio is currently 452.83%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new stake in Moelis & Company in the 3rd quarter valued at about $49,017,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,855,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 252.8% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 220,770 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $16,310,000 after acquiring an additional 158,200 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $10,158,000. Finally, Hodges Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Moelis & Company in the fourth quarter worth approximately $9,149,000. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Moelis & Company

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.