Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Rating Lowered to “Hold” at StockNews.com

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) was downgraded by StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Thursday.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $92.00 price objective (up from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $70.00 price target (down previously from $100.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Moelis & Company from $79.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $73.83.

Moelis & Company Stock Down 2.5 %

NYSE MC traded down $1.52 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $58.57. The stock had a trading volume of 1,609,204 shares, compared to its average volume of 877,594. Moelis & Company has a 52-week low of $46.24 and a 52-week high of $82.89. The company has a market cap of $4.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.28 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $73.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $71.78.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.79. Moelis & Company had a return on equity of 38.49% and a net margin of 11.39%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Moelis & Company

In other Moelis & Company news, insider Christopher Callesano sold 1,282 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total transaction of $94,868.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $90,798. This trade represents a 51.10 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 9,712 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total value of $718,688.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 209,235 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,483,390. The trade was a 4.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,721 shares of company stock valued at $1,677,017 over the last three months. 6.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Moelis & Company

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company in the third quarter valued at about $3,433,000. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new position in shares of Moelis & Company in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,784,000. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its position in Moelis & Company by 13.7% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 804,860 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $55,141,000 after purchasing an additional 96,720 shares during the last quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Moelis & Company in the 4th quarter worth approximately $9,149,000. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC raised its position in Moelis & Company by 129.8% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 13,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $949,000 after purchasing an additional 7,819 shares during the last quarter. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.