Centennial Wealth Advisory LLC Purchases New Holdings in Lazard, Inc. $LAZ

Key Points

• Centennial Wealth Advisory LLC has acquired a new stake in Lazard, purchasing 11,911 shares valued at approximately $572,000 during the 2nd quarter.
• Analysts have expressed mixed sentiments about Lazard, with JMP Securities setting a target price of $60, while Zacks downgraded the stock from "strong-buy" to "hold."
• Lazard recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.50 per share, resulting in an annual yield of 3.8% and a dividend payout ratio of 68.97%.

Centennial Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 11,911 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $572,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. TD Private Client Wealth LLC grew its stake in Lazard by 8.3% in the 2nd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 77,839 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $3,735,000 after acquiring an additional 5,933 shares in the last quarter. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC grew its stake in Lazard by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC now owns 46,592 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $2,235,000 after acquiring an additional 517 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Lazard by 57.2% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 918 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 334 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC bought a new position in Lazard in the 2nd quarter worth about $307,000. Finally, International Private Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Lazard in the 2nd quarter worth about $354,000. 54.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LAZ has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. JMP Securities set a $60.00 target price on shares of Lazard and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Lazard from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Citigroup restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Lazard in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Lazard from $47.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Lazard from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $60.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Monday, August 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lazard presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $55.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lazard

In other Lazard news, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 50,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.95, for a total value of $2,847,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 227,915 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $12,979,759.25. This trade represents a 17.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 32,475 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 183,274 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,913,290.66. This represents a 15.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 108,092 shares of company stock worth $6,030,986 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.86% of the company's stock.

Lazard Price Performance

Shares of LAZ opened at $53.11 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $5.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.31 and a beta of 1.35. Lazard, Inc. has a twelve month low of $31.97 and a twelve month high of $61.14. The company has a quick ratio of 2.53, a current ratio of 2.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.15. The company has a 50 day moving average of $54.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $47.52.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $796.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $674.13 million. Lazard had a net margin of 9.96% and a return on equity of 34.33%. Lazard's revenue was up 16.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.52 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. Lazard's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.97%.

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.

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