Bleakley Financial Group LLC Purchases 587 Shares of Lazard, Inc. $LAZ

Bleakley Financial Group LLC boosted its position in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 11,439 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 587 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Lazard were worth $549,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in LAZ. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 5,847,608 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its holdings in Lazard by 141.6% in the first 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 in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Lazard by 42.2% in the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,644,323 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $71,199,000 after acquiring an additional 487,574 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of Lazard by 31.6% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,690,943 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $73,214,000 after purchasing an additional 406,232 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GW Henssler & Associates Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Lazard in the second quarter worth approximately $14,772,000. Institutional investors own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on LAZ shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Lazard from $38.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Lazard in a report on Saturday. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Lazard from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Citigroup reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Lazard in a report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, JMP Securities set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Lazard and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.00.

Lazard Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:LAZ opened at $49.24 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.46 and a beta of 1.37. The company’s 50-day moving average is $53.47 and its 200 day moving average is $48.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.15, a quick ratio of 2.53 and a current ratio of 2.53. Lazard, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $31.97 and a fifty-two week high of $61.14.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $782.43 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $739.91 million. Lazard had a net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 37.15%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.38 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 3rd. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.1%. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.97%.

Insider Activity at Lazard

In other Lazard news, CAO Michael Gathy sold 617 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.37, for a total value of $34,163.29. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 32,475 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.09, for a total value of $1,756,572.75. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 183,274 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,913,290.66. The trade was a 15.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 108,092 shares of company stock worth $6,030,986. 2.26% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.