Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) Price Target Lowered to $55.00 at JMP Securities

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) had its price target decreased by JMP Securities from $60.00 to $55.00 in a report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. JMP Securities currently has a market outperform rating on the asset manager’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on LAZ. Morgan Stanley cut Lazard from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $56.00 to $33.00 in a report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Lazard from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com raised shares of Lazard from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Lazard from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Wolfe Research lowered Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.83.

Lazard Stock Performance

Shares of LAZ opened at $33.39 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.55 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a current ratio of 2.24. Lazard has a 1 year low of $31.97 and a 1 year high of $61.14. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $47.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $51.01.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.09. Lazard had a return on equity of 44.58% and a net margin of 8.98%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Lazard will post 4.24 EPS for the current year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 21st. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.99%. Lazard’s payout ratio is currently 75.19%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 64,539 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.24, for a total transaction of $2,919,744.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 234,824 shares in the company, valued at $10,623,437.76. This trade represents a 21.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.32, for a total value of $1,383,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 163,448 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,041,943.36. This trade represents a 13.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 189,078 shares of company stock worth $9,120,541 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 3.86% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Lazard

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LAZ. Verition Fund Management LLC bought a new position in Lazard during the 3rd quarter valued at $605,000. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Lazard by 1.8% during the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 40,425 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,028,000 after purchasing an additional 728 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Lazard by 2.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,948,167 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $98,149,000 after purchasing an additional 55,469 shares in the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC increased its holdings in Lazard by 7.6% in the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 28,142 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,418,000 after buying an additional 1,987 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC acquired a new stake in Lazard during the third quarter valued at approximately $296,000. 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.