Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.65

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 5th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be given a dividend of 0.65 per share by the asset manager on Thursday, March 27th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.20%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. This is an increase from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60.

Moelis & Company has increased its dividend by an average of 1.4% annually over the last three years. Moelis & Company has a dividend payout ratio of 69.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Moelis & Company to earn $2.57 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 93.4%.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

MC traded up $1.56 during trading on Thursday, hitting $81.24. The stock had a trading volume of 1,525,641 shares, compared to its average volume of 748,264. Moelis & Company has a twelve month low of $46.24 and a twelve month high of $82.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 153.29 and a beta of 1.40. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $75.40 and its 200 day moving average price is $70.67.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.18 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.79. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 4.22% and a return on equity of 12.15%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Moelis & Company will post 1.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MC. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $92.00 price objective (up previously from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Moelis & Company from $79.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Moelis & Company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $78.83.

Moelis & Company Company Profile

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.