Goldman Sachs Assumes Moelis (MC) at Neutral

Goldman Sachs assumes coverage on Moelis (NYSE: MC) with a Neutral rating and a price target of $33.00.

Analyst Daniel Paris commented, "Over the past 5 years, MC has moved from #36 in the global league tables to #26 (driven by a nearly 20% annual increase in senior bankers and total employees across a number of global geographies). Even more so than EVR, we believe MC offers a partial hedge to the M&A cycle, in the sense that a strong recruiting pipeline and continued maturation of relatively new bankers (firm was only founded in 2007) will offer revenue growth even if the global M&A revenue pool stays flat. Offsetting this in part is a historical tilt towards advising financial sponsors, which we think is likely to lag near-term given relatively high valuations and bank restraints around leverage capacity."

Catalysts cited by the analyst:

1) Growth potential with or without a growing pool

2) EPS/valuation dependent on “normalized” comp

3) Outsized exposure to financial sponsors

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Moelis click here. For more ratings news on Moelis click here.

Shares of Moelis closed at $29.45 yesterday.

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