Moelis & (NYSE: MC) and PJT Partners (NYSE:PJT) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitabiliy, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations and risk.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Moelis & and PJT Partners, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Moelis & | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2.40 |
| PJT Partners | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3.00 |
Moelis & presently has a consensus target price of $33.20, indicating a potential downside of 17.52%. PJT Partners has a consensus target price of $45.00, indicating a potential upside of 0.74%. Given PJT Partners’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe PJT Partners is more favorable than Moelis &.
Profitability
This table compares Moelis & and PJT Partners’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Moelis & | 7.07% | 46.73% | 22.83% |
| PJT Partners | -0.39% | 1,891.52% | 10.86% |
Insider & Institutional Ownership
94.2% of Moelis & shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 58.1% of PJT Partners shares are owned by institutional investors. 64.5% of Moelis & shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.3% of PJT Partners shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Dividends
Moelis & pays an annual dividend of $1.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. PJT Partners pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. Moelis & pays out 86.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. PJT Partners pays out -153.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. PJT Partners has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years.
Valuation & Earnings
This table compares Moelis & and PJT Partners’ top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | EBITDA | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Moelis & | $660.27 million | 1.63 | $45.90 million | $1.72 | 23.40 |
| PJT Partners | $504.90 million | 1.64 | -$2.41 million | ($0.13) | -343.62 |
Moelis & has higher revenue and earnings than PJT Partners. PJT Partners is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Moelis &, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Volatility & Risk
Moelis & has a beta of 1.87, meaning that its stock price is 87% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PJT Partners has a beta of 0.31, meaning that its stock price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Moelis & beats PJT Partners on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.
Moelis & Company Profile
Moelis & Company is an investment banking advisory company. The Company provides strategic and financial advice to a client base, including corporations, governments and financial sponsors. The Company offers financial advisory services across various industry sectors. It advices its clients on decisions, including mergers and acquisitions (M&A), recapitalizations and restructurings, and other corporate finance matters. With 17 offices located in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia, the Company provided information flow and cross-border solutions as of December 31, 2016. The Company offers advisory services in all industries, including consumer, retail and restaurants; energy, power and infrastructure; financial institutions; financial sponsors; general industrials; healthcare; real estate, gaming, lodging and leisure, and technology, media and telecommunications. It advises clients on all aspects of public and private debt and equity transactions.
PJT Partners Company Profile
PJT Partners Inc. is an advisory-focused investment bank. The Company offers an array of strategic advisory, restructuring and special situations and private fund advisory and placement services to corporations, financial sponsors, institutional investors and governments. It provides, through Park Hill Group, private fund advisory and placement services for alternative investment managers, including private equity funds, real estate funds and hedge funds. Its advisory business offers a range of financial advisory and transaction execution capability, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, minority investments, asset swaps, divestitures, takeover defenses, corporate finance advisory, private placements and distressed sales. Its Restructuring and Special Situations Group’s services include advising companies, creditors and financial sponsors on recapitalizations, reorganizations, exchange offers, debt repurchases, capital raises, and distressed mergers and acquisitions.
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