Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Shares Sold by B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG reduced its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) by 17.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 41,528 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 8,579 shares during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG’s holdings in Moelis & Company were worth $3,068,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Moelis & Company during the fourth quarter worth about $2,784,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 12,632 shares during the period. Hodges Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company during the fourth quarter worth approximately $9,149,000. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 129.8% during the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 13,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $949,000 after purchasing an additional 7,819 shares during the period. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new position in Moelis & Company in the 4th quarter valued at $412,000. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on MC shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective 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. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $86.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $92.00 target price (up previously from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Moelis & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $71.83.

Insider Transactions at Moelis & Company

In related news, General Counsel Osamu R. Watanabe sold 5,661 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 $418,914.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 6,471 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $478,854. This trade represents a 46.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 9,712 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total transaction of $718,688.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 209,235 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,483,390. The trade was a 4.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,721 shares of company stock valued at $1,677,017 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Moelis & Company Price Performance

NYSE MC opened at $58.33 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $69.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $71.38. The company has a market capitalization of $4.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.14 and a beta of 1.43. Moelis & Company has a 1-year low of $46.24 and a 1-year high of $82.89.

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, 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%. On average, research analysts expect 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 was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were given a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. 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 4.46%. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.