Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) Lowered to “Hold” Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Monday morning.

LAZ has been the topic of a number of other reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Lazard from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. UBS Group raised their price target on Lazard from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. JMP Securities upped their price objective on Lazard from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Lazard from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on Lazard from $59.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Lazard presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.00.

Lazard Trading Down 1.6 %

LAZ opened at $52.45 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $50.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $44.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.60, a current ratio of 1.94 and a quick ratio of 1.94. Lazard has a 12 month low of $25.82 and a 12 month high of $54.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.90 and a beta of 1.38.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The asset manager reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $646.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $644.22 million. Lazard had a return on equity of 46.55% and a net margin of 8.28%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 21.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.10 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Lazard will post 2.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.81%. Lazard’s payout ratio is 79.68%.

Insider Activity at Lazard

In other Lazard news, Chairman Kenneth M. Jacobs sold 86,728 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.02, for a total transaction of $4,338,134.56. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 1,640,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $82,082,569.90. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Lazard news, Chairman Kenneth M. Jacobs sold 86,728 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.02, for a total transaction of $4,338,134.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 1,640,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $82,082,569.90. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Kenneth M. Jacobs sold 87,770 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.08, for a total value of $4,219,981.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 1,553,225 shares in the company, valued at approximately $74,679,058. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 176,497 shares of company stock worth $8,658,086 in the last 90 days. 3.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Lazard

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC acquired a new position in shares of Lazard during the first quarter worth about $25,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. increased its position in Lazard by 1,125.0% during the 2nd quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 735 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 675 shares during the period. Continuum Advisory LLC raised its stake in shares of Lazard by 58.9% during the 2nd quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 890 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 330 shares in the last quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Lazard during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $50,000. Finally, Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Lazard in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $87,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

Lazard Company Profile

Lazard, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a financial advisory and asset management firm in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. It operates in two segments, Financial Advisory and Asset Management. The Financial Advisory segment offers financial advisory services, such as mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, shareholder, sovereign, geopolitical advisory, and other strategic advisory services, as well as restructuring and liability management, and capital raising and placement services.