AMG National Trust Bank Sells 5,404 Shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

AMG National Trust Bank decreased its position in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) by 33.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 10,876 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 5,404 shares during the quarter. AMG National Trust Bank’s holdings in Moelis & Company were worth $807,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,590,316 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $108,973,000 after purchasing an additional 10,698 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 935,552 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $69,119,000 after purchasing an additional 12,632 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 13.7% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 804,860 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $55,141,000 after purchasing an additional 96,720 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 768,945 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $56,810,000 after purchasing an additional 53,473 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tributary Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC now owns 439,778 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $32,491,000 after purchasing an additional 5,062 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.53% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on MC. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Moelis & Company from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Moelis & Company from $79.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $92.00 price target (up previously from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $78.83.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 9,712 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was 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 approximately $15,483,390. This represents a 4.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Christopher Callesano sold 1,282 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was 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 approximately $90,798. This trade represents a 51.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,721 shares of company stock worth $1,677,017 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Moelis & Company Trading Down 1.0 %

MC opened at $61.86 on Friday. Moelis & Company has a 1-year low of $46.24 and a 1-year high of $82.89. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $74.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $72.00. The stock has a market cap of $4.63 billion, a PE ratio of 35.15 and a beta of 1.43.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.79. Moelis & Company had a return on equity of 38.49% and a net margin of 11.39%. Equities analysts forecast that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Moelis & Company Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be given a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is a boost from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.20%. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 147.73%.

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.