Royce & Associates LP Cuts Holdings in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

Royce & Associates LP lessened its position in shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) by 22.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 86,810 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 25,678 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Moelis & Company were worth $6,414,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MC. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new position in shares of Moelis & Company in the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,433,000. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Moelis & Company in the 4th quarter valued at $2,784,000. Hodges Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Moelis & Company during the 4th quarter valued at $9,149,000. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its position in Moelis & Company by 129.8% during the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 13,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $949,000 after purchasing an additional 7,819 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 12,632 shares in the last quarter. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Moelis & Company news, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 9,712 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total transaction of $718,688.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 209,235 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,483,390. This represents a 4.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Christopher Callesano sold 1,282 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total transaction of $94,868.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $90,798. This trade represents a 51.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 22,721 shares of company stock valued at $1,677,017 in the last quarter. Insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley restated an “underweight” rating and set a $70.00 price objective (down previously from $100.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. StockNews.com cut Moelis & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $92.00 price objective (up previously from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $86.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $71.83.

Moelis & Company Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:MC opened at $59.39 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $4.45 billion, a PE ratio of 33.74 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $72.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $71.68. Moelis & Company has a 12-month low of $46.24 and a 12-month high of $82.89.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.79. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 11.39% and a return on equity of 38.49%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This is an increase from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 147.73%.

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.