HighTower Advisors LLC Buys 196,030 Shares of Moelis & Company $MC

HighTower Advisors LLC increased its stake in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) by 18.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,256,324 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 196,030 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC owned about 1.60% of Moelis & Company worth $89,601,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Azora Capital LP purchased a new position in shares of Moelis & Company in the 2nd quarter worth about $46,762,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in Moelis & Company by 1,161.8% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 661,594 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $41,231,000 after buying an additional 609,162 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Moelis & Company during the second quarter worth $31,248,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Moelis & Company by 26.0% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,052,862 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $127,947,000 after buying an additional 424,138 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tributary Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 91.2% in the 3rd quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC now owns 793,600 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $56,600,000 after buying an additional 378,636 shares during the last quarter. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Monday, December 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $80.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $70.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut Moelis & Company from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $78.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 16th. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on Moelis & Company in a research note on Monday, January 26th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $81.00 target price for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $76.33.

Moelis & Company Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MC opened at $65.94 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $71.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $69.93. Moelis & Company has a 12 month low of $47.00 and a 12 month high of $78.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.43, a PEG ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.87.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The asset manager reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.37. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 15.36% and a return on equity of 43.19%. The company had revenue of $487.94 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $430.17 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.18 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be paid a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.9%. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio is 88.44%.

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. The company was founded by Kenneth David Moelis, Navid Mahmoodzadegan, Jeffrey Raich and Elizabeth Ann Crain in July 2007 and is headquartered in New York, NY.