Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) CEO Sells $2,940,396.84 in Stock

Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 64,539 shares of Lazard stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.56, for a total transaction of $2,940,396.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 170,285 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,758,184.60. The trade was a 27.48 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Peter Richard Orszag also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, March 14th, Peter Richard Orszag sold 64,539 shares of Lazard stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.24, for a total transaction of $2,919,744.36.

Lazard Price Performance

NYSE LAZ traded up $0.82 on Monday, reaching $45.75. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 893,407 shares, compared to its average volume of 887,616. The firm has a market cap of $5.16 billion, a PE ratio of 17.20 and a beta of 1.41. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $50.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $51.78. Lazard, Inc. has a 52 week low of $35.56 and a 52 week high of $61.14. The company has a current ratio of 2.24, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.09. Lazard had a net margin of 8.98% and a return on equity of 44.58%. Sell-side analysts expect that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 EPS for the current year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 21st. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.37%. Lazard’s payout ratio is currently 75.19%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on LAZ shares. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Lazard from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Lazard from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com raised shares of Lazard from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Lazard from $51.00 to $44.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Lazard from $63.00 to $56.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $54.17.

Institutional Trading of Lazard

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp grew its stake in Lazard by 2.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,948,167 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $98,149,000 after buying an additional 55,469 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Lazard by 128.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 678,617 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $34,935,000 after buying an additional 381,546 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Lazard by 2.2% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,772,237 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $89,285,000 after buying an additional 37,681 shares during the last quarter. Monument Capital Management bought a new stake in Lazard during the fourth quarter worth about $2,809,000. Finally, Glenmede Trust Co. NA bought a new stake in Lazard during the third quarter worth about $487,000. Institutional investors own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

About Lazard

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.