Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC Sells 1,171 Shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC reduced its holdings in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) by 10.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,154 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,171 shares during the period. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Moelis & Company were worth $750,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Moelis & Company by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,590,316 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $108,973,000 after buying an additional 10,698 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Moelis & Company by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 935,552 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $69,119,000 after buying an additional 12,632 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 13.7% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 804,860 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $55,141,000 after purchasing an additional 96,720 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 768,945 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $56,810,000 after purchasing an additional 53,473 shares during the period. Finally, Tributary Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC now owns 439,778 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $32,491,000 after purchasing an additional 5,062 shares during the period. 91.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Moelis & Company Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MC opened at $68.13 on Tuesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $75.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $72.05. Moelis & Company has a fifty-two week low of $46.24 and a fifty-two week high of $82.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.71 and a beta of 1.40.

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

Moelis & Company Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.82%. This is a positive change from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. Moelis & Company’s payout ratio is currently 147.73%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Moelis & Company news, insider Christopher Callesano sold 1,282 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total value of $94,868.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 1,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $90,798. The trade was a 51.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 9,712 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total value of $718,688.00. Following the completion of 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 22,721 shares of company stock valued at $1,677,017. 6.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on MC shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Moelis & Company from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Moelis & Company from $79.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and set a $92.00 price objective (up from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Moelis & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $78.83.

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.