JPMorgan Chase & Co. Sells 30,800 Shares of Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (NYSE:HLI)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased its position in Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (NYSE:HLI) by 20.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 121,182 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 30,800 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned approximately 0.17% of Houlihan Lokey worth $19,149,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Houlihan Lokey in the 2nd quarter worth about $38,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC purchased a new position in shares of Houlihan Lokey in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $38,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Houlihan Lokey by 81.5% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 441 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $70,000 after acquiring an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in shares of Houlihan Lokey during the third quarter valued at approximately $76,000. Finally, Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. lifted its holdings in Houlihan Lokey by 69.1% during the second quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 678 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $91,000 after acquiring an additional 277 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HLI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group upped their price objective on Houlihan Lokey from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Houlihan Lokey from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Houlihan Lokey from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $171.00 to $200.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Houlihan Lokey from $171.00 to $172.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Houlihan Lokey from $157.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Houlihan Lokey currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $174.20.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Gillian Beth Zucker sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.08, for a total transaction of $33,616.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,601 shares in the company, valued at $1,109,496.08. The trade was a 2.94 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 23.68% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Houlihan Lokey Stock Up 1.4 %

HLI opened at $173.15 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $180.10 and a 200-day moving average price of $162.17. Houlihan Lokey, Inc. has a twelve month low of $112.17 and a twelve month high of $192.10. The company has a market capitalization of $12.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.41 and a beta of 0.69.

Houlihan Lokey (NYSE:HLI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.31 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $574.96 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $537.93 million. Houlihan Lokey had a net margin of 15.77% and a return on equity of 19.29%. Houlihan Lokey’s revenue was up 23.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.11 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Houlihan Lokey, Inc. will post 5.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Houlihan Lokey Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.57 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.32%. Houlihan Lokey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.63%.

Houlihan Lokey Company Profile

Houlihan Lokey, Inc, an investment banking company, provides merger and acquisition (M&A), capital market, financial restructuring, and financial and valuation advisory services worldwide. It operates in three segments: Corporate Finance, Financial Restructuring, and Financial and Valuation Advisory.