Assetmark Inc. Purchases 589 Shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)

Assetmark Inc. raised its position in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 12.2% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,413 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 589 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc.’s holdings in Lazard were worth $273,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new position in Lazard during the first quarter worth about $25,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Lazard by 1,125.0% in the second quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 735 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 675 shares in the last quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of Lazard by 58.9% in the second quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 890 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 330 shares in the last quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Lazard in the third quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Finally, Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in Lazard during the second quarter worth approximately $87,000. Institutional investors own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on Lazard from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Lazard from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Lazard from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. StockNews.com cut shares of Lazard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on Lazard in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $51.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, Chairman Kenneth M. Jacobs sold 86,728 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.02, for a total value of $4,338,134.56. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 1,640,995 shares in the company, valued at $82,082,569.90. This represents a 5.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 176,497 shares of company stock valued at $8,658,086. Company insiders own 3.86% of the company’s stock.

Lazard Stock Performance

Shares of LAZ stock opened at $55.00 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.91 and a beta of 1.38. 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 business’s 50-day moving average price is $51.56 and its 200-day moving average price is $45.56. Lazard, Inc. has a 12 month low of $26.25 and a 12 month high of $61.14.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The asset manager reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $646.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $644.22 million. Lazard had a return on equity of 42.20% and a net margin of 8.28%. The company’s revenue was up 21.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.10 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Lazard, Inc. will post 2.31 EPS for the current year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.64%. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 79.68%.

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.