Marsh & McLennan Companies’ (MMC) Outperform Rating Reiterated at Evercore ISI

Evercore ISI reiterated their outperform rating on shares of Marsh & McLennan Companies (NYSE:MMC) in a research report released on Monday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has a $242.00 price objective on the financial services provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on MMC. UBS Group upped their target price on Marsh & McLennan Companies from $255.00 to $259.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Marsh & McLennan Companies from $248.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Marsh & McLennan Companies from $232.00 to $242.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Marsh & McLennan Companies from $209.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Marsh & McLennan Companies from $236.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $227.60.

Marsh & McLennan Companies Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MMC opened at $233.23 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $223.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $219.40. The company has a market capitalization of $114.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.72, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. Marsh & McLennan Companies has a twelve month low of $184.28 and a twelve month high of $235.21.

Marsh & McLennan Companies (NYSE:MMC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The financial services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.61 by $0.02. Marsh & McLennan Companies had a net margin of 16.82% and a return on equity of 32.65%. The firm had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.71 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.57 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Marsh & McLennan Companies will post 8.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Marsh & McLennan Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th were given a dividend of $0.815 per share. This represents a $3.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.40%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. Marsh & McLennan Companies’s payout ratio is presently 40.15%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Marsh & McLennan Companies news, Director Oscar Fanjul sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $221.55, for a total transaction of $553,875.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 48,549 shares in the company, valued at $10,756,030.95. This trade represents a 4.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.35% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Marsh & McLennan Companies by 2.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,445,110 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,784,190,000 after purchasing an additional 518,185 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Marsh & McLennan Companies by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,905,431 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,648,304,000 after buying an additional 251,361 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in Marsh & McLennan Companies by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 4,530,716 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $954,712,000 after acquiring an additional 223,257 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC lifted its position in Marsh & McLennan Companies by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 4,274,880 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $953,683,000 after acquiring an additional 85,754 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Marsh & McLennan Companies by 1.7% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 3,409,110 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $718,368,000 after acquiring an additional 58,461 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.99% of the company’s stock.

About Marsh & McLennan Companies

Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc, a professional services company, provides advice and solutions to clients in the areas of risk, strategy, and people worldwide. It operates through Risk and Insurance Services, and Consulting segments. The Risk and Insurance Services segment offers risk management services, such as risk advice, risk transfer, and risk control and mitigation solutions, as well as insurance and reinsurance broking, strategic advisory services, and analytics solutions, and insurance program management services.