Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Shares Gap Down to $53.99

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) gapped down prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $53.99, but opened at $50.55. Moelis & Company shares last traded at $49.99, with a volume of 495,067 shares trading hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MC has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com raised shares of Moelis & Company from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Moelis & Company from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $53.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $46.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $54.00 price objective (down previously from $58.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a report on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $50.80.

Moelis & Company Stock Down 1.0 %

The company has a market cap of $3.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -261.84 and a beta of 1.35. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $54.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $51.54.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The asset manager reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $217.49 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $219.30 million. Moelis & Company had a negative net margin of 1.33% and a negative return on equity of 0.13%. Moelis & Company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.05 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Moelis & Company will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Moelis & Company Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 20th. Investors of record on Monday, May 6th will be issued a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio is currently -1,263.16%.

Insider Activity at Moelis & Company

In related news, insider Christopher Callesano sold 1,040 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.59, for a total value of $55,733.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Moelis & Company news, insider Christopher Callesano sold 1,040 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.59, for a total value of $55,733.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 128,277 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.60, for a total transaction of $6,747,370.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,810 shares in the company, valued at $8,511,206. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 375,185 shares of company stock valued at $20,130,225 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 6.96% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Moelis & Company

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MC. Mendota Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Moelis & Company during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new position in shares of Moelis & Company during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 147.9% during the first quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 657 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 392 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 22.5% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,505 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $84,000 after purchasing an additional 276 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Moelis & Company during the third quarter worth $99,000. 91.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Moelis & Company

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.