Texas Permanent School Fund Corp Trims Stock Position in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lessened its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) by 14.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 49,896 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 8,448 shares during the period. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp owned approximately 0.07% of Moelis & Company worth $2,837,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wasatch Advisors LP grew its position in Moelis & Company by 4.9% during the first quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 3,417,643 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $194,020,000 after buying an additional 159,797 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in Moelis & Company by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,374,385 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $189,404,000 after buying an additional 334,620 shares during the period. Madison Asset Management LLC grew its position in Moelis & Company by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Madison Asset Management LLC now owns 1,399,649 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $78,562,000 after buying an additional 60,455 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC grew its position in Moelis & Company by 5.2% during the first quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 1,118,245 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $63,483,000 after buying an additional 55,402 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Moelis & Company by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 814,568 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $45,722,000 after buying an additional 21,839 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.53% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MC has been the topic of several analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “market perform” rating and set a $60.00 price target (up previously from $54.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $51.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $70.00 target price on the stock. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have issued a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $58.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Moelis & Company news, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 495 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.29, for a total transaction of $34,298.55. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $649,385.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Moelis & Company news, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 495 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.29, for a total transaction of $34,298.55. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $649,385.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Joseph Simon sold 6,723 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.00, for a total transaction of $430,272.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 12,526 shares of company stock worth $830,133. 6.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Moelis & Company Trading Up 5.1 %

MC opened at $67.35 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.04 billion, a PE ratio of -354.47 and a beta of 1.33. Moelis & Company has a twelve month low of $38.58 and a twelve month high of $70.00. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $64.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $57.77.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $264.59 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $227.90 million. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 1.38% and a return on equity of 4.38%. Moelis & Company’s quarterly revenue was up 47.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.04) earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Moelis & Company will post 1.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 26th. Investors of record on Monday, August 5th will be given a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 5th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.56%. Moelis & Company’s payout ratio is presently -1,263.16%.

Moelis & Company Company Profile

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.