307,869 Shares in Lazard, Inc. $LAZ Bought by GW Henssler & Associates Ltd.

Key Points

• GW Henssler & Associates Ltd. acquired 307,869 shares of Lazard, Inc., valued at approximately $14.8 million, representing about 0.27% ownership by the end of the most recent quarter.
• Several analysts have recently adjusted their ratings on Lazard, with Morgan Stanley increasing their price objective from $47.00 to $61.00 but maintaining an "underweight" rating, while Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded their rating to "outperform" and set a price target of $65.00.
• Lazard announced a quarterly dividend of $0.50 per share with an annualized yield of 4.2%, and the company's dividend payout ratio stands at 68.97%.

GW Henssler & Associates Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 307,869 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $14,772,000. GW Henssler & Associates Ltd. owned approximately 0.27% of Lazard at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of LAZ. Calton & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Lazard during the first quarter worth $28,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Lazard by 57.2% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 918 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 334 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Lazard during the first quarter worth $50,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Lazard by 164.1% during the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,244 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 773 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Lazard by 170.8% in the second quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,771 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $85,000 after acquiring an additional 1,117 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.80% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LAZ has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped 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. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on shares of Lazard in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. They issued a "market perform" rating and a $56.00 price objective for the company. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Lazard from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Lazard from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $60.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Monday, August 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c+)" rating on shares of Lazard in a research note on Wednesday. Three investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $55.14.

Insider Transactions at Lazard

In other news, CAO Michael Gathy sold 617 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.37, for a total transaction of $34,163.29. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 32,475 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.09, for a total transaction of $1,756,572.75. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 183,274 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,913,290.66. This represents a 15.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 108,092 shares of company stock worth $6,030,986. Company insiders own 3.86% of the company's stock.

Lazard Price Performance

Shares of LAZ opened at $47.85 on Friday. Lazard, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $31.97 and a fifty-two week high of $61.14. The company has a market capitalization of $5.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.50 and a beta of 1.37. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $54.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $47.77. 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 (NYSE:LAZ - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.14. Lazard had a net margin of 9.96% and a return on equity of 34.33%. The business had revenue of $796.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $674.13 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.52 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 16.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.2%. Lazard's dividend payout ratio is 68.97%.

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.

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