Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the seven brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $54.17.

Several brokerages have weighed in on LAZ. StockNews.com raised Lazard from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Lazard from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Wolfe Research cut Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Lazard from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Lazard from $63.00 to $56.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 13th.

Lazard Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of LAZ stock opened at $45.75 on Thursday. Lazard has a 12-month low of $35.56 and a 12-month 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. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $50.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $51.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.20 and a beta of 1.41.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.09. Lazard had a return on equity of 44.58% and a net margin of 8.98%. Equities research analysts predict that Lazard will post 4.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Lazard

In other Lazard news, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 64,539 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The stock was 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 owns 170,285 shares in the company, valued at $7,758,184.60. This represents a 27.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.32, for a total value of $1,383,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 163,448 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,041,943.36. This represents a 13.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 189,078 shares of company stock worth $9,120,541. Company insiders own 3.86% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Lazard

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp lifted its holdings 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 period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 381,546 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 37,681 shares in the last quarter. Monument Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of Lazard during the fourth quarter worth $2,809,000. Finally, Wealthfront Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Lazard during the fourth quarter worth $3,735,000. Hedge funds and other 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.