Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Short Interest Up 39.1% in February

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 3,840,000 shares, an increase of 39.1% from the February 13th total of 2,760,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 765,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.0 days. Currently, 5.5% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 2,551 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.30, for a total value of $184,437.30. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,940 shares of the company’s stock, 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 link. Also, insider Christopher Callesano sold 1,282 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 value of $94,868.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,227 shares in the company, valued at $90,798. The trade was a 51.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 22,721 shares of company stock valued at $1,677,017. Company insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC grew its holdings in Moelis & Company by 52.5% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 398 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 137 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Moelis & Company during the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Moelis & Company during the 4th quarter worth about $47,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its holdings in Moelis & Company by 148.3% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 822 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $61,000 after buying an additional 491 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC acquired a new position in shares of Moelis & Company during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $61,000. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on Moelis & Company from $86.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com cut shares of Moelis & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $92.00 price target (up previously from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Moelis & Company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $71.83.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

NYSE MC opened at $60.19 on Tuesday. Moelis & Company has a one year low of $46.24 and a one year high of $82.89. The company has a market capitalization of $4.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.20 and a beta of 1.43. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $72.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $71.73.

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 return on equity of 38.49% and a net margin of 11.39%. Equities analysts expect that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This is an increase from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. Moelis & Company’s payout ratio 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.