The Goldman Sachs Group Cuts Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Price Target to $75.00

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) had its target price reduced by analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from $86.00 to $75.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “neutral” rating on the asset manager’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price target points to a potential upside of 25.82% from the company’s previous close.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on MC. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $92.00 price target (up previously from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $70.00 target price (down from $100.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a report on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com cut Moelis & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $71.83.

Moelis & Company Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of Moelis & Company stock traded up $1.06 on Friday, reaching $59.61. 272,715 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 864,933. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $73.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $71.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.84 and a beta of 1.43. Moelis & Company has a fifty-two week low of $46.24 and a fifty-two week high of $82.89.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 38.49% and a net margin of 11.39%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Moelis & Company news, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 9,712 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 209,235 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,483,390. This trade represents a 4.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, 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 value of $418,914.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 6,471 shares in the company, valued at $478,854. The trade was a 46.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 22,721 shares of company stock worth $1,677,017 in the last three months. Insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MC. Atria Investments Inc boosted its position in Moelis & Company by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 25,197 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,726,000 after buying an additional 1,107 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 35.2% in the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 12,248 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $839,000 after purchasing an additional 3,190 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 72.2% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 85,202 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,837,000 after purchasing an additional 35,713 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 24.4% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,068 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $142,000 after purchasing an additional 405 shares during the last quarter. Finally, OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,812 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $946,000 after purchasing an additional 172 shares during the last quarter. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Moelis & Company

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.