Moelis & Company to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.60 (NYSE:MC)

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 24th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.60 per share by the asset manager on Thursday, June 20th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd.

Moelis & Company has raised its dividend payment by an average of 19.6% annually over the last three years. Moelis & Company has a dividend payout ratio of 92.0% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Analysts expect Moelis & Company to earn $2.83 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 84.8%.

Moelis & Company Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE MC opened at $50.02 on Friday. Moelis & Company has a 52 week low of $33.87 and a 52 week high of $58.67. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $54.19 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $51.50. The company has a market cap of $3.56 billion, a P/E ratio of -264.53 and a beta of 1.35.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. StockNews.com raised Moelis & Company from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Moelis & Company from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $53.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Moelis & Company from $46.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Moelis & Company from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have assigned a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Moelis & Company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $50.80.

Insider Activity at Moelis & Company

In related news, General Counsel Osamu R. Watanabe sold 7,685 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.60, for a total transaction of $404,231.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 6,000 shares in the company, valued at $315,600. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Moelis & Company news, General Counsel Osamu R. Watanabe sold 7,685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.60, for a total value of $404,231.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 6,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $315,600. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Christopher Callesano sold 1,040 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.59, for a total value of $55,733.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 375,185 shares of company stock worth $20,130,225 over the last ninety days. 6.96% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.