Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC Has $524.35 Million Stock Position in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC lowered its stake in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 7,097,345 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 136,492 shares during the period. Moelis & Company accounts for approximately 1.2% of Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC owned approximately 0.09% of Moelis & Company worth $524,352,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on MC shares. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on Moelis & Company from $86.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Moelis & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $92.00 price objective (up from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $63.00 to $55.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Two equities research 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 2,551 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 6,940 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $501,762. This trade represents a 26.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Kenneth Moelis sold 9,712 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.00, for a total transaction of $718,688.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 209,235 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,483,390. This represents a 4.44 % 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 over the last three months. 6.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Moelis & Company Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MC opened at $51.68 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $61.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $69.56. 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 $3.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.37 and a beta of 1.53.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.79. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 11.39% and a return on equity of 38.49%. On average, analysts predict that Moelis & Company will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Moelis & Company Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a $0.65 dividend. 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. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.03%. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio is currently 147.73%.

Moelis & 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.