Insider Selling: Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) General Counsel Sells $418,914.00 in Stock

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) General Counsel Osamu R. Watanabe sold 5,661 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 $418,914.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 6,471 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $478,854. This represents a 46.66 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Moelis & Company Trading Down 3.0 %

MC opened at $71.37 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.35 billion, a PE ratio of 40.55 and a beta of 1.40. Moelis & Company has a 1-year low of $46.24 and a 1-year high of $82.89. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $75.73 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $71.74.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. On average, research analysts predict that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Moelis & Company Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be given a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This is a boost from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 147.73%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MC. StockNews.com cut shares of Moelis & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $92.00 target price (up previously from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $78.83.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new position in shares of Moelis & Company in the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,433,000. Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 13.7% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 804,860 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $55,141,000 after purchasing an additional 96,720 shares during the last quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Moelis & Company in the 4th quarter valued at about $9,149,000. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 129.8% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 13,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $949,000 after purchasing an additional 7,819 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 922,920 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $63,229,000 after purchasing an additional 16,830 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.53% of the company’s stock.

Moelis & Company Company Profile

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.