Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) by 16.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 118,223 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,482 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc.’s holdings in Moelis & Company were worth $8,734,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Moelis & Company by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,147,315 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $601,924,000 after buying an additional 99,766 shares during the last quarter. Madison Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company during the 4th quarter valued at about $86,062,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 935,552 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $69,119,000 after purchasing an additional 12,632 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 860,125 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $63,546,000 after purchasing an additional 36,736 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 7.5% during the 4th 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.53% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on MC shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Moelis & Company from $55.00 to $52.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Moelis & Company from $70.00 to $42.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Moelis & Company from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded 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 issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $61.83.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 2,551 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.30, for a total value of $184,437.30. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,940 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $501,762. The trade was a 26.88% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 9,712 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 22,721 shares of company stock valued at $1,677,017. Corporate insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Moelis & Company Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of NYSE:MC opened at $61.08 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $55.61 and a 200 day moving average of $67.85. The company has a market cap of $4.80 billion, a PE ratio of 34.70 and a beta of 1.66. Moelis & Company has a 12-month low of $47.00 and a 12-month high of $82.89.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $306.59 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $309.67 million. Moelis & Company had a return on equity of 38.49% and a net margin of 11.39%. The firm’s revenue was up 41.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.22 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 20th. Investors of record on Monday, May 5th will be issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 5th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.26%. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio is presently 119.27%.

Moelis & Company 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.