Marsh & McLennan Companies (NYSE:MMC) Sees Strong Trading Volume Following Analyst Upgrade

Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (NYSE:MMC) shares saw unusually-strong trading volume on Monday after Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on the stock from $212.00 to $214.00. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods currently has an underperform rating on the stock. Approximately 716,789 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 49% from the previous session’s volume of 1,413,938 shares.The stock last traded at $209.65 and had previously closed at $209.11.

MMC has been the topic of several other reports. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $220.00 target price on shares of Marsh & McLennan Companies and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Marsh & McLennan Companies from $236.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. UBS Group lifted their price target on Marsh & McLennan Companies from $255.00 to $259.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Marsh & McLennan Companies from $212.00 to $211.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Roth Mkm lifted their target price on Marsh & McLennan Companies from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Marsh & McLennan Companies has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $228.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other 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 value of $553,875.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 48,549 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,756,030.95. This trade represents a 4.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Marsh & McLennan Companies

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. bought a new position in Marsh & McLennan Companies during the second quarter valued at about $3,710,000. Czech National Bank lifted its position in Marsh & McLennan Companies by 6.7% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 100,175 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $22,348,000 after purchasing an additional 6,282 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Marsh & McLennan Companies by 2.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,905,431 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,648,304,000 after buying an additional 251,361 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. raised its stake in shares of Marsh & McLennan Companies by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 508,245 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $113,384,000 after buying an additional 23,445 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kinsale Capital Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Marsh & McLennan Companies by 16.8% during the 3rd quarter. Kinsale Capital Group Inc. now owns 27,004 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,024,000 after acquiring an additional 3,880 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.99% of the company’s stock.

Marsh & McLennan Companies Trading Up 1.0 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $219.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $221.15. The stock has a market cap of $104.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.30, a PEG ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.96.

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

Marsh & McLennan Companies Company Profile

Marsh & McLennan Cos., Inc is a professional services firm, which engages in offering clients advice and solutions in risk, strategy, and people. It operates through the Risk and Insurance Services, and Consulting segments. The Risk and Insurance Services segment is involved in risk management activities, as well as insurance and reinsurance broking and services.