Virtu Financial LLC Buys New Holdings in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC)

Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 9,242 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $633,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Sei Investments Co. boosted its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 18.2% during the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 305,871 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $17,392,000 after acquiring an additional 47,176 shares during the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new stake in Moelis & Company in the 3rd quarter worth $3,433,000. XTX Topco Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 274.4% during the 2nd quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 16,524 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $940,000 after purchasing an additional 12,110 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 13.7% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 804,860 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $55,141,000 after purchasing an additional 96,720 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Moelis & Company by 129.8% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 13,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $949,000 after purchasing an additional 7,819 shares during the last quarter. 91.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Moelis & Company Price Performance

NYSE:MC opened at $73.93 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 139.49 and a beta of 1.37. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $72.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $65.67. Moelis & Company has a 1 year low of $46.24 and a 1 year high of $81.60.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.02. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 4.22% and a return on equity of 12.15%. The company had revenue of $273.76 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $273.58 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.15) earnings per share. Moelis & Company’s quarterly revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Moelis & Company will post 0.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, November 4th were issued a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 4th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.25%. Moelis & Company’s payout ratio is 452.83%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Moelis & Company from $70.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Morgan Stanley upgraded Moelis & Company from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $66.00 to $92.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $66.50.

Moelis & Company Company Profile

Moelis & Company operates as an investment banking advisory firm. It offers advisory services in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations and restructurings, capital markets transactions, and other corporate finance matters, as well as strategic, capital structure, and private funds advisory.