My Legacy Advisors LLC Invests $215,000 in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)

My Legacy Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 4,272 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $215,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Janus Henderson Group PLC purchased a new stake in shares of Lazard in the first quarter worth $65,650,000. Claro Advisors LLC increased its stake in Lazard by 10,306.7% in the 3rd quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 1,235,793 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $62,259,000 after buying an additional 1,223,918 shares in the last quarter. Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Lazard in the 1st quarter worth $15,768,000. TD Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Lazard during the second quarter valued at about $7,102,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in shares of Lazard by 169.0% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 262,003 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,970,000 after acquiring an additional 164,591 shares during the period. 54.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on LAZ shares. JMP Securities lifted their target price on Lazard from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $56.00 target price (up previously from $49.00) on shares of Lazard in a report on Friday, July 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Lazard from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Lazard from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Lazard from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lazard presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $51.14.

Insider Activity

In related news, Chairman Kenneth M. Jacobs sold 1,999 shares of Lazard stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total transaction of $99,969.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 1,727,723 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $86,403,427.23. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Chairman Kenneth M. Jacobs sold 86,728 shares of Lazard stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at approximately $82,082,569.90. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Chairman Kenneth M. Jacobs sold 1,999 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total transaction of $99,969.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 1,727,723 shares in the company, valued at $86,403,427.23. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 176,497 shares of company stock valued at $8,658,086. 3.86% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Lazard Trading Down 0.2 %

LAZ opened at $52.54 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $49.50 and a 200 day moving average of $43.71. The company has a current ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.60. Lazard, Inc. has a 12 month low of $25.82 and a 12 month high of $54.72. The firm has a market cap of $5.92 billion, a P/E ratio of -150.11 and a beta of 1.39.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The asset manager reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $685.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $625.40 million. Lazard had a return on equity of 41.78% and a net margin of 5.50%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.24 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Lazard, Inc. will post 2.43 EPS for the current year.

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.