Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) Earns Market Perform Rating from Analysts at BMO Capital Markets

BMO Capital Markets began coverage on shares of Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) in a report issued on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm issued a market perform rating and a $56.00 price target on the asset manager’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on LAZ. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Lazard from $38.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Zacks Research lowered Lazard from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Lazard from $47.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Lazard from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $60.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Monday, August 25th. Finally, JMP Securities set a $60.00 price target on shares of Lazard and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.14.

Lazard Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of LAZ stock opened at $51.71 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $54.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $47.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 2.53. Lazard has a 1-year low of $31.97 and a 1-year high of $61.14. The firm has a market cap of $5.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.83 and a beta of 1.37.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $796.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $674.13 million. Lazard had a net margin of 9.96% and a return on equity of 34.33%. Lazard’s revenue was up 16.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.52 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Lazard will post 4.24 EPS for the current year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Lazard’s payout ratio is presently 68.97%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lazard news, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 32,475 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.09, for a total transaction of $1,756,572.75. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 183,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,913,290.66. This represents a 15.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 50,000 shares of Lazard stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.95, for a total value of $2,847,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 227,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,979,759.25. The trade was a 17.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 108,092 shares of company stock worth $6,030,986 in the last three months. 2.26% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Lazard by 2,324.4% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,099,179 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $264,096,000 after buying an additional 5,847,608 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Lazard during the second quarter worth about $66,547,000. Amundi increased its holdings in shares of Lazard by 141.6% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,263,046 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $97,990,000 after acquiring an additional 1,326,370 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in Lazard in the 2nd quarter valued at about $34,305,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Lazard by 42.2% in the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,644,323 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $71,199,000 after purchasing an additional 487,574 shares during the last quarter. 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.