Lesa Sroufe & Co Increases Stake in Lazard, Inc. $LAZ

Lesa Sroufe & Co lifted its stake in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 52,619 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,567 shares during the quarter. Lazard comprises about 2.3% of Lesa Sroufe & Co’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Lesa Sroufe & Co’s holdings in Lazard were worth $2,525,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Calton & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Lazard in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $28,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Lazard by 57.2% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 918 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 334 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Lazard in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Lazard by 164.1% in the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,244 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $55,000 after purchasing an additional 773 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Lazard by 170.8% in the 2nd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,771 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $85,000 after purchasing an additional 1,117 shares during the last quarter. 54.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on LAZ. Citigroup reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Lazard in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted 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. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on shares of Lazard in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. They set a “market perform” rating and a $56.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Lazard from $47.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Lazard in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Lazard presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $54.43.

Lazard Price Performance

NYSE:LAZ opened at $49.88 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 2.53. The firm has a market cap of $5.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.20 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $54.01 and a 200-day moving average price of $47.86. Lazard, Inc. has a 1-year low of $31.97 and a 1-year high of $61.14.

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

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Lazard’s payout ratio is 68.97%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 32,475 shares of Lazard stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 183,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,913,290.66. The trade was a 15.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Michael Gathy sold 617 shares of Lazard stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.37, for a total transaction of $34,163.29. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 108,092 shares of company stock valued at $6,030,986 in the last three months. 3.86% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Lazard 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.