Stifel Financial Corp Sells 48,350 Shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

Stifel Financial Corp cut its stake in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) by 20.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 193,422 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 48,350 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp owned about 0.26% of Moelis & Company worth $14,290,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its position in Moelis & Company by 52.5% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 398 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 137 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Moelis & Company in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in Moelis & Company in the 4th quarter worth approximately $47,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its position in Moelis & Company by 148.3% during the 4th 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 last quarter. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC acquired a new position in Moelis & Company during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $61,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.53% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on MC. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com lowered Moelis & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Moelis & Company from $63.00 to $55.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $92.00 price target (up previously from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $70.00 to $42.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.50.

Moelis & Company Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of MC stock opened at $51.68 on Friday. Moelis & Company has a twelve month low of $46.24 and a twelve month high of $82.89. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $61.50 and a 200 day moving average of $69.54. The stock has a market cap of $3.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.37 and a beta of 1.53.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. On average, research analysts predict that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.03%. This is an increase from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio is presently 147.73%.

Insider Activity

In other Moelis & Company news, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 2,551 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.30, for a total transaction of $184,437.30. Following the completion of the sale, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Osamu R. Watanabe sold 5,661 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total value of $418,914.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 6,471 shares in the company, valued at approximately $478,854. This trade represents a 46.66 % decrease in their position. 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 quarter. Corporate insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Moelis & Company 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.