Sei Investments Co. Sells 8,691 Shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

Sei Investments Co. reduced its stake in shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) by 3.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 275,669 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 8,691 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co.’s holdings in Moelis & Company were worth $20,366,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. R Squared Ltd bought a new stake in Moelis & Company during the fourth quarter valued at about $47,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew 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 worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 491 shares in the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC bought a new stake in Moelis & Company during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $61,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Moelis & Company by 368.2% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,016 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $75,000 after purchasing an additional 799 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Moelis & Company by 18.1% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,175 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $87,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares in the last quarter. 91.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on MC shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $86.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 14th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and set a $92.00 price objective (up previously from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $70.00 target price (down from $100.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $71.83.

Insider Activity at Moelis & Company

In related news, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 9,712 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total transaction of $718,688.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 209,235 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,483,390. This represents a 4.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Osamu R. Watanabe sold 5,661 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total transaction of $418,914.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 6,471 shares in the company, valued at $478,854. This trade represents a 46.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 22,721 shares of company stock worth $1,677,017. Company insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Moelis & Company Stock Down 3.1 %

Moelis & Company stock opened at $59.72 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $70.55 and its 200-day moving average price is $71.41. Moelis & Company has a twelve month low of $46.24 and a twelve month high of $82.89. The company has a market cap of $4.48 billion, a PE ratio of 33.93 and a beta of 1.43.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The asset manager reported $1.18 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were given a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.35%. This is an increase from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. Moelis & Company’s payout ratio is currently 147.73%.

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.