Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Reaffirms Outperform Rating for Lazard (NYSE:LAZ)

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated their outperform rating on shares of Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) in a research note released on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $49.00 price objective on the asset manager’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $51.00.

LAZ has been the subject of several other reports. TheStreet upgraded shares of Lazard from a d+ rating to a c+ rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley restated an overweight rating and set a $58.00 price objective on shares of Lazard in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Lazard from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Lazard from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Lazard from a peer perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $42.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Lazard currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $45.67.

Lazard Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of LAZ stock opened at $38.99 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.51. The stock has a market cap of $4.40 billion, a P/E ratio of -111.40 and a beta of 1.46. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $35.42. Lazard has a 1 year low of $25.82 and a 1 year high of $42.24.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The asset manager reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.08. Lazard had a negative net margin of 0.63% and a positive return on equity of 37.47%. The business had revenue of $765.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $678.57 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.26) earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 41.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Lazard will post 3.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 17th. Investors of record on Monday, May 6th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.13%. Lazard’s payout ratio is -571.43%.

Insider Activity at Lazard

In related news, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 75,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.35, for a total value of $2,951,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 227,448 shares in the company, valued at $8,950,078.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 3.86% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Lazard

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of LAZ. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new stake in Lazard during the first quarter valued at $25,000. Larson Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Lazard during the third quarter valued at $27,000. SYSTM Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Lazard during the first quarter valued at $48,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Lazard during the third quarter valued at $60,000. Finally, Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. bought a new stake in Lazard during the third quarter valued at $210,000. 54.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.