JPMorgan Chase & Co. Sells 256,185 Shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered its stake in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) by 17.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,206,118 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 256,185 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned 1.61% of Moelis & Company worth $82,631,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MC. DGS Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company during the third quarter worth about $202,000. Tidal Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Moelis & Company during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,290,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Moelis & Company by 25.3% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 12,214 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $917,000 after acquiring an additional 2,463 shares during the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Moelis & Company by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 14,166 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $971,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Moelis & Company during the third quarter valued at $633,000. Institutional investors own 91.53% of the company’s stock.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

Moelis & Company stock opened at $74.20 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 140.00 and a beta of 1.37. Moelis & Company has a 52-week low of $46.24 and a 52-week high of $81.60. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $73.83 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $67.52.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.02. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 4.22% and a return on equity of 12.15%. The business had revenue of $273.76 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $273.58 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.15) earnings per share. Moelis & Company’s revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Moelis & Company will post 0.96 EPS for the current year.

Moelis & Company Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, November 4th were paid a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 4th. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 452.83%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Moelis & Company from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $71.00 to $86.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Moelis & Company from $70.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley raised Moelis & Company from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $92.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $70.83.

About Moelis & Company

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.