Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC Grows Holdings in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) by 3.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 46,245 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,675 shares during the quarter. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Moelis & Company were worth $2,596,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MC. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Moelis & Company by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,787,483 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $351,449,000 after buying an additional 28,446 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 0.7% during the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,279,209 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $328,511,000 after acquiring an additional 49,291 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 16.2% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,239,113 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $282,881,000 after acquiring an additional 870,362 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Moelis & Company by 1,654.6% during the second quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,807,979 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $217,994,000 after acquiring an additional 4,533,955 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,907,088 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $111,545,000 after purchasing an additional 18,721 shares during the period. 91.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MC has been the topic of several research reports. StockNews.com upgraded Moelis & Company from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $56.00 price target on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Monday, January 29th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Moelis & Company from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Moelis & Company from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $53.00 to $58.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $46.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $50.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Vice Chairman Eric Cantor sold 17,857 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.60, for a total transaction of $939,278.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 195,863 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,302,393.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, Vice Chairman Eric Cantor sold 17,857 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.60, for a total value of $939,278.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 195,863 shares in the company, valued at $10,302,393.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Christopher Callesano sold 1,040 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.59, for a total transaction of $55,733.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 375,185 shares of company stock worth $20,130,225. Company insiders own 6.96% of the company’s stock.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

Shares of Moelis & Company stock traded up $0.70 during trading on Friday, hitting $51.67. 133,205 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 619,866. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -144.28 and a beta of 1.35. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $54.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $51.20. Moelis & Company has a 52-week low of $33.87 and a 52-week high of $58.67.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 7th. The asset manager reported ($0.06) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.11) by $0.05. Moelis & Company had a negative net margin of 2.89% and a negative return on equity of 3.82%. The business had revenue of $214.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $197.98 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.33 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Moelis & Company will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 20th were issued a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.64%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 16th. Moelis & Company’s payout ratio is presently -666.67%.

Moelis & Company Profile

Moelis & Company operates as an investment banking advisory firm. It offers advisory services in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations and restructurings, capital markets transactions, and other corporate finance matters, as well as strategic, capital structure, and private funds advisory.