Fred Alger Management LLC Purchases Shares of 221,927 Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

Fred Alger Management LLC acquired a new stake in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 221,927 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $16,396,000. Fred Alger Management LLC owned approximately 0.30% of Moelis & Company as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new position in Moelis & Company during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,784,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted 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 valued at $69,119,000 after acquiring an additional 12,632 shares in the last quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Moelis & Company during the 4th quarter valued at about $9,149,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Moelis & Company in the 4th quarter worth $27,855,000. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Moelis & Company in the 4th quarter worth approximately $412,000. Institutional investors own 91.53% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MC. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Moelis & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $70.00 to $42.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Moelis & Company from $55.00 to $52.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, 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 report on Thursday, February 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has issued 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 target price of $61.83.

Insider Activity

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 transaction of $184,437.30. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,940 shares in the company, valued at approximately $501,762. The trade was a 26.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Osamu R. Watanabe sold 5,661 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total value of $418,914.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 6,471 shares in the company, valued at $478,854. The trade was a 46.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,721 shares of company stock worth $1,677,017 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Moelis & Company Price Performance

NYSE:MC opened at $55.15 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $55.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $67.99. Moelis & Company has a 1-year low of $47.00 and a 1-year high of $82.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.34 and a beta of 1.66.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $306.59 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $309.67 million. Moelis & Company had a return on equity of 38.49% and a net margin of 11.39%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 41.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.22 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 5th will be given a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 5th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.71%. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 119.27%.

About Moelis & Company

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.