Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Stake Cut by Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC

Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC cut its position in shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) by 10.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 10,154 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,171 shares during the quarter. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Moelis & Company were worth $750,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Moelis & Company by 1.3% in the third quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,812 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $946,000 after buying an additional 172 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Moelis & Company by 18.1% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,175 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $87,000 after buying an additional 180 shares during the last quarter. Choreo LLC lifted its stake in Moelis & Company by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 4,831 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $358,000 after buying an additional 187 shares during the last quarter. Heritage Family Offices LLP lifted its stake in Moelis & Company by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Heritage Family Offices LLP now owns 4,464 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $330,000 after buying an additional 213 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 0.4% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 62,570 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,287,000 after purchasing an additional 220 shares in the last quarter. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Moelis & Company Price Performance

Shares of Moelis & Company stock opened at $68.13 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $5.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.71 and a beta of 1.40. Moelis & Company has a 52-week low of $46.24 and a 52-week high of $82.89. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $75.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $72.05.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.79. Moelis & Company had a return on equity of 38.49% and a net margin of 11.39%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 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. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a $0.65 dividend. This is a positive change from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. Moelis & Company’s payout ratio is 147.73%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MC. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Moelis & Company from $79.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com lowered Moelis & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Moelis & Company from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. One 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $78.83.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 9,712 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total value of $718,688.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 209,235 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,483,390. The trade was a 4.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 2,551 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.30, for a total value of $184,437.30. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 6,940 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $501,762. This trade represents a 26.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 22,721 shares of company stock worth $1,677,017. 6.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.