Axiom Investors LLC DE Increases Stake in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

Axiom Investors LLC DE increased its holdings in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) by 52.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 283,193 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 97,241 shares during the quarter. Axiom Investors LLC DE’s holdings in Moelis & Company were worth $20,922,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC raised its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 52.5% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 398 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 137 shares in the last quarter. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in Moelis & Company in the fourth quarter worth about $47,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 148.3% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 822 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 491 shares during the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company during the fourth quarter valued at about $61,000. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 368.2% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,016 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $75,000 after buying an additional 799 shares in the last quarter. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Moelis & Company

In other news, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 2,551 shares of the 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 sale, the director now directly owns 6,940 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $501,762. This represents a 26.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 9,712 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 $718,688.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 209,235 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,483,390. The trade was 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 worth $1,677,017 over the last three months. Company insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on MC. Morgan Stanley reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $70.00 target price (down previously from $100.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Moelis & Company from $86.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 14th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com cut Moelis & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $71.83.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

Moelis & Company stock opened at $57.88 on Monday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $70.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $71.48. The company has a market cap of $4.34 billion, a PE ratio of 32.89 and a beta of 1.43. Moelis & Company has a fifty-two week low of $46.24 and a fifty-two week high of $82.89.

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

Moelis & Company Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This is a boost from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.