Victory Capital Management Inc. Acquires 663 Shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) by 0.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 85,865 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 663 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned 0.11% of Moelis & Company worth $6,344,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 935,552 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $69,119,000 after acquiring an additional 12,632 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its position in 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. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 799 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Moelis & Company by 252.8% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 220,770 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $16,310,000 after purchasing an additional 158,200 shares during the period. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Moelis & Company in the fourth quarter worth $10,158,000. 91.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on MC. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and issued a $70.00 target price (down from $100.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com cut Moelis & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on Moelis & Company from $86.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $71.83.

Insider Transactions at Moelis & Company

In other news, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 2,551 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.30, for a total transaction of $184,437.30. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,940 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $501,762. This trade represents a 26.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Christopher Callesano sold 1,282 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total value of $94,868.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,227 shares in the company, valued at $90,798. The trade was a 51.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 22,721 shares of company stock valued at $1,677,017. 6.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Moelis & Company Trading Up 1.8 %

NYSE MC opened at $59.61 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $4.47 billion, a PE ratio of 33.87 and a beta of 1.43. Moelis & Company has a 12 month low of $46.24 and a 12 month high of $82.89. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $72.87 and a 200-day moving average of $71.72.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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, sell-side analysts predict that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is a positive change from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio is 147.73%.

Moelis & Company Profile

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.