Houlihan Lokey (NYSE:HLI) Upgraded at Morgan Stanley

Houlihan Lokey (NYSE:HLI) was upgraded by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report issued on Thursday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The brokerage presently has a $190.00 target price on the financial services provider’s stock, down from their previous target price of $201.00. Morgan Stanley’s price target points to a potential upside of 21.25% from the company’s previous close.

HLI has been the subject of several other research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Houlihan Lokey from $172.00 to $169.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. StockNews.com cut shares of Houlihan Lokey from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Houlihan Lokey in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Houlihan Lokey from $229.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Houlihan Lokey from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $180.00 to $179.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Houlihan Lokey presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $192.00.

Houlihan Lokey Price Performance

Houlihan Lokey stock opened at $156.70 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $10.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.90 and a beta of 0.72. Houlihan Lokey has a 1 year low of $121.81 and a 1 year high of $192.10. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $174.61 and a two-hundred day moving average of $171.88.

Houlihan Lokey (NYSE:HLI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The financial services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.13. Houlihan Lokey had a net margin of 16.00% and a return on equity of 20.04%. Research analysts expect that Houlihan Lokey will post 5.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Barclays PLC increased its stake in Houlihan Lokey by 21.4% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 36,821 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,818,000 after purchasing an additional 6,483 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Houlihan Lokey by 2.5% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 399,388 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $63,111,000 after acquiring an additional 9,768 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Houlihan Lokey by 1.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,615,467 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $255,276,000 after acquiring an additional 21,106 shares during the period. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Houlihan Lokey in the fourth quarter worth $5,133,000. Finally, Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in shares of Houlihan Lokey by 2,482.4% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 9,813 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,551,000 after acquiring an additional 9,433 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.07% of the company’s stock.

About Houlihan Lokey

Houlihan Lokey, Inc, an investment banking company, provides merger and acquisition (M&A), capital market, financial restructuring, and financial and valuation advisory services worldwide. It operates in three segments: Corporate Finance, Financial Restructuring, and Financial and Valuation Advisory.