Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.65

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 6th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of 0.65 per share by the asset manager on Thursday, March 27th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.20%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. This is an increase from Moelis & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60.

Moelis & Company has raised its dividend by an average of 1.4% annually over the last three years. Moelis & Company has a payout ratio of 69.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Moelis & Company to earn $2.57 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 93.4%.

Moelis & Company Stock Up 2.0 %

MC traded up $1.56 during trading on Thursday, reaching $81.24. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,486,041 shares, compared to its average volume of 748,254. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $75.40 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $70.67. Moelis & Company has a 1 year low of $46.24 and a 1 year high of $82.89. The company has a market cap of $6.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 153.29 and a beta of 1.40.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last posted 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 net margin of 4.22% and a return on equity of 12.15%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Moelis & Company will post 1.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MC has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $92.00 price target (up from $86.00) on shares of Moelis & Company in a research note on Thursday. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Moelis & Company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Moelis & Company from $79.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Moelis & Company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $78.83.

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.