Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Shares Sold by Farther Finance Advisors LLC

Farther Finance Advisors LLC trimmed its position in shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) by 14.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,030 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 167 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC’s holdings in Moelis & Company were worth $76,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in MC. R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in Moelis & Company in the 4th quarter valued at $47,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its holdings in Moelis & Company by 148.3% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 822 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 491 shares in the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC acquired a new stake in Moelis & Company in the 4th quarter valued at $61,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Moelis & Company by 368.2% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,016 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $75,000 after purchasing an additional 799 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 18.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,175 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $87,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares in the last quarter. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 9,712 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total transaction of $718,688.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 209,235 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,483,390. This represents a 4.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 2,551 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.30, for a total transaction of $184,437.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,940 shares in the company, valued at approximately $501,762. The trade was a 26.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 22,721 shares of company stock valued at $1,677,017 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Moelis & Company Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:MC opened at $60.93 on Friday. Moelis & Company has a 1 year low of $46.24 and a 1 year high of $82.89. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $71.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $71.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.57 billion, a PE ratio of 34.62 and a beta of 1.43.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.79. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 11.39% and a return on equity of 38.49%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be given a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This is a positive change from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio is 147.73%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on MC. StockNews.com cut shares of Moelis & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $70.00 price target (down previously from $100.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $86.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $71.83.

About Moelis & Company

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.