Houlihan Lokey (NYSE:HLI) Raised to “Overweight” at Morgan Stanley

Houlihan Lokey (NYSE:HLI) was upgraded by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report released on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm presently has a $190.00 price objective on the financial services provider’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $201.00. Morgan Stanley’s target price points to a potential upside of 19.48% from the company’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on HLI. StockNews.com cut Houlihan Lokey from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Houlihan Lokey in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Houlihan Lokey from $172.00 to $169.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $192.00 price objective (up from $170.00) on shares of Houlihan Lokey in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on Houlihan Lokey from $229.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Houlihan Lokey has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $192.00.

Houlihan Lokey Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of HLI stock opened at $159.02 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.35 and a beta of 0.72. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $174.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $171.77. Houlihan Lokey has a twelve month low of $121.81 and a twelve month high of $192.10.

Houlihan Lokey (NYSE:HLI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The financial services provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.13. Houlihan Lokey had a return on equity of 20.04% and a net margin of 16.00%. As a group, research analysts predict that Houlihan Lokey will post 5.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Barclays PLC grew its position in Houlihan Lokey by 21.4% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 36,821 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,818,000 after purchasing an additional 6,483 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Houlihan Lokey by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 399,388 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $63,111,000 after purchasing an additional 9,768 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Houlihan Lokey by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,615,467 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $255,276,000 after purchasing an additional 21,106 shares during the last quarter. Gunderson Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Houlihan Lokey in the 4th quarter valued at $5,133,000. Finally, Assetmark Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Houlihan Lokey by 2,482.4% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 9,813 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,551,000 after purchasing an additional 9,433 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.07% of the company’s stock.

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.