Geode Capital Management LLC Lowers Holdings in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

Geode Capital Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) by 0.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,585,802 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 4,514 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC owned approximately 2.12% of Moelis & Company worth $117,187,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MC. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Moelis & Company by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,147,315 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $601,924,000 after buying an additional 99,766 shares in the last quarter. Madison Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Moelis & Company during the fourth quarter worth about $86,062,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased 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 worth $69,119,000 after purchasing an additional 12,632 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in Moelis & Company by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 768,945 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $56,810,000 after purchasing an additional 53,473 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Moelis & Company during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $52,610,000. Institutional investors own 91.53% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MC. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $63.00 to $55.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Moelis & Company from $70.00 to $42.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on Moelis & Company from $86.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Moelis & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Moelis & Company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moelis & Company

In related news, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 2,551 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.30, for a total transaction of $184,437.30. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,940 shares in the company, valued at $501,762. The trade was a 26.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 9,712 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total transaction of $718,688.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 209,235 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,483,390. This trade represents a 4.44 % 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 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

NYSE:MC opened at $48.79 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.66 billion, a PE ratio of 27.72 and a beta of 1.53. Moelis & Company has a fifty-two week low of $46.24 and a fifty-two week high of $82.89. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $66.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $70.62.

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

Moelis & Company Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were given a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is a positive change from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.33%. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.