Blue Trust Inc. Purchases 516 Shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) by 47.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,597 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 516 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Moelis & Company were worth $109,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MC. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new position in Moelis & Company during the 3rd quarter worth $3,433,000. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 13.7% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 804,860 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $55,141,000 after acquiring an additional 96,720 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its stake in Moelis & Company by 129.8% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 13,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $949,000 after acquiring an additional 7,819 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Moelis & Company by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 922,920 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $63,229,000 after acquiring an additional 16,830 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. increased its position in Moelis & Company by 75.0% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 87,213 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,975,000 after purchasing an additional 37,375 shares during the period. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

Shares of MC stock opened at $81.24 on Friday. Moelis & Company has a fifty-two week low of $46.24 and a fifty-two week high of $82.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 153.29 and a beta of 1.40. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $75.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $70.67.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.79. Moelis & Company had a return on equity of 12.15% and a net margin of 4.22%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Moelis & Company will post 1.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Moelis & Company Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a $0.65 dividend. This is an increase from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.20%. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio is presently 452.83%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $79.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Moelis & Company from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $92.00 price objective (up previously from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Moelis & Company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $78.83.

About Moelis & Company

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.