Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Price Target Lowered to $42.00 at Morgan Stanley

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) had its target price cut by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $70.00 to $42.00 in a research report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “underweight” rating on the asset manager’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective suggests a potential downside of 16.17% from the company’s previous close.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Moelis & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $92.00 target price (up from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $86.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $67.17.

Moelis & Company Stock Down 0.9 %

MC stock traded down $0.46 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $50.10. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 607,713 shares, compared to its average volume of 707,205. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $67.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $71.07. Moelis & Company has a 52 week low of $46.24 and a 52 week high of $82.89. The stock has a market cap of $3.75 billion, a PE ratio of 28.49 and a beta of 1.53.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Christopher Callesano sold 1,282 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $90,798. This trade represents a 51.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 2,551 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.30, for a total transaction of $184,437.30. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,940 shares in the company, valued at approximately $501,762. This represents a 26.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,721 shares of company stock valued at $1,677,017 in the last 90 days. 6.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moelis & Company

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MC. Madison Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Moelis & Company during the fourth quarter worth about $86,062,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in Moelis & Company in the fourth quarter valued at about $52,610,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 215.5% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 723,384 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $53,444,000 after acquiring an additional 494,123 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,855,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors bought a new stake in shares of Moelis & Company during the fourth quarter worth $20,720,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.53% 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.