LPL Financial LLC Buys 7,213 Shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

LPL Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC - Free Report) by 14.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 57,774 shares of the asset manager's stock after acquiring an additional 7,213 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC owned 0.08% of Moelis & Company worth $4,268,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in Moelis & Company in the 4th quarter worth approximately $47,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 148.3% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 822 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 491 shares during the period. AlphaQuest LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company in the fourth quarter worth $61,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 368.2% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,016 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $75,000 after buying an additional 799 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Moelis & Company by 18.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,175 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $87,000 after buying an additional 180 shares in the last quarter. 91.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MC has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. JMP Securities reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $86.00 to $75.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $70.00 to $42.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $63.00 to $55.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $92.00 price objective (up from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $62.50.

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Moelis & Company Price Performance

NYSE MC traded up $0.75 on Tuesday, reaching $52.87. 112,963 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 981,942. The stock has a market cap of $3.96 billion, a PE ratio of 30.04 and a beta of 1.53. Moelis & Company has a 12 month low of $46.24 and a 12 month high of $82.89. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $63.69 and a 200 day simple moving average of $70.02.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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, analysts anticipate that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Moelis & Company Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were given a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is a positive change from Moelis & Company's previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.92%. Moelis & Company's dividend payout ratio is presently 147.73%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Moelis & Company news, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 9,712 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total transaction of $718,688.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 209,235 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,483,390. The trade was a 4.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Christopher Callesano sold 1,282 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total value of $94,868.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,227 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $90,798. This represents a 51.10 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 22,721 shares of company stock valued at $1,677,017 over the last quarter. 6.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.