Hilton Capital Management LLC Takes $1.60 Million Position in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

Hilton Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 23,417 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $1,604,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MC. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company in the third quarter valued at about $49,017,000. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its position in Moelis & Company by 179.2% during the second quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 708,140 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $40,265,000 after purchasing an additional 454,478 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its position in Moelis & Company by 40.7% during the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 246,655 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $14,113,000 after purchasing an additional 71,372 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Moelis & Company by 27.0% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 293,529 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $16,690,000 after purchasing an additional 62,444 shares during the last quarter. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new stake in Moelis & Company during the third quarter worth about $3,433,000. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Moelis & Company Price Performance

Shares of MC opened at $73.97 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $69.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $63.10. Moelis & Company has a 1-year low of $44.06 and a 1-year high of $81.60. The stock has a market cap of $5.54 billion, a PE ratio of 139.57 and a beta of 1.33.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.02. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 4.22% and a return on equity of 12.15%. The business had revenue of $273.76 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $273.58 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.15) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Moelis & Company will post 0.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 4th will be paid a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.24%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 4th. Moelis & Company’s payout ratio is 452.83%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on MC shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “market perform” rating and set a $60.00 price objective (up from $54.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $70.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $67.00 to $66.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have given a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $60.83.

Moelis & 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.