Moelis & Company (MC) Stock Up on Special Dividend Announcement

Shares of Moelis (NYSE:MC) & Company MC rallied 3.8% in the aftermarket trading following the announcement of a special dividend. The dividend of $2 per share will be paid out on Dec 29 to shareholders on record as of Dec 18.

Ken Moelis, Chairman and CEO of Moelis & Company said, “As a result of the strong momentum and positive outlook in our business, we declared a special dividend of $2.00 per share today. We remain committed to returning all of our excess cash to shareholders.”

Earlier in February, Moelis & Company had announced a special dividend of 75 cents per share. In fact, the company has been paying special dividends even before it started paying quarterly dividend from October 2014.

Also, Moelis & Company has been increasing quarterly dividend annually since 2015, with the last hike announced in February 2020 to 51 cents per share. Here it is worth mentioning that the company slashed it by 50% in April in order to preserve liquidity amid coronavirus pandemic. Nevertheless, the company has since increased the same by 50% to 38.25 cents per share in October.

Based on last day’s closing price of $42.83, the company’s dividend yield currently stands at 3.57%. This yield is not only attractive for income investors but also represents a steady income stream.

Further, Moelis & Company has a share repurchase plan in place. As of Sep 30, 2020, the company had $80.9 million left under share buyback plan, which was announced in February 2019.

As the company’s debt balance is immaterial and balance sheet position remains strong, its enhanced capital deployment actions look sustainable and will continue to enhance shareholder value.

Shares of Moelis & Company have rallied 34.2% so far this year, outperforming the industry’s 14.5% gain.



Currently, Moelis & Company carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Other Finance Stocks That Took Similar Action

Over the past month, few other finance companies have undertaken efforts to reward shareholders by announcing special dividend. Some of these are Waterstone Financial (NASDAQ:WSBF) WSBF, Eaton Vance (NYSE:EV) EV and Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT) Corporation FULT.

Waterstone Financial announced a special dividend of 30 cents per share, which will be paid out today to shareholders on record as of Dec 1. For Eaton (NYSE:ETN) Vance, a special dividend of $4.25 per share was announced, which is to be paid out on Dec 18 to shareholders of record on Dec 4. Fulton Financial’s special dividend of 4 cents per share will be paid on Dec 17 to shareholders on record as of Dec 7.

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