Keefe Bruyette analyst Michael Brown upgraded Moelis to Outperform from Market Perform with a price target of $39, up from $34. The analyst believes 2019 will represent the "trough" in terms of managing director productivity at Moelis. As the company shows a renewed focus on execution, its productivity should inflect and move back toward 2018 levels in 2020 and 2021, Brown tells investors in a research note. He believes returning to a normalized managing director productivity level and hiring pace should support revenue growth into 2021 above consensus expectations.