Citigroup Inc. Buys 17,418 Shares of Lazard, Inc. $LAZ

Citigroup Inc. grew its holdings in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ - Free Report) by 5.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 358,970 shares of the asset manager's stock after purchasing an additional 17,418 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. owned approximately 0.32% of Lazard worth $15,543,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Calton & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Lazard during the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lazard by 54.3% during the 4th quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 977 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 344 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Lazard during the 1st quarter valued at $50,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lazard by 164.1% during the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,244 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 773 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Lazard by 119.5% during the 4th quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 2,028 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $104,000 after acquiring an additional 1,104 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.80% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Lazard from $38.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Citigroup reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Lazard in a report on Monday, July 14th. JMP Securities set a $60.00 target price on Lazard and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a report on Monday, July 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Lazard from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a "sell" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Lazard from $33.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $51.50.

Lazard Trading Down 1.2%

Shares of NYSE:LAZ traded down $0.65 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $53.36. The company's stock had a trading volume of 133,719 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,106,723. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.40 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.15, a quick ratio of 2.53 and a current ratio of 2.53. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $50.01 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $46.42. Lazard, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $31.97 and a fifty-two week high of $61.14.

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

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Lazard's payout ratio is currently 68.97%.

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.