Consolidated Planning Corp Purchases New Shares in Lazard, Inc. $LAZ

Key Points

• Consolidated Planning Corp has acquired 16,240 shares of Lazard, Inc., valued at approximately $779,000, marking a new investment in the asset management company.
• Lazard reported earnings per share of $0.52 for the last quarter, exceeding the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.14, and its revenue increased by 16.2% compared to the previous year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.50 per share, with an annualized dividend of $2.00 and a yield of 3.9%.

Consolidated Planning Corp acquired a new position in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 16,240 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $779,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Lazard by 2,324.4% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,099,179 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $264,096,000 after buying an additional 5,847,608 shares in the last quarter. Ariel Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Lazard by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 5,619,280 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $243,315,000 after buying an additional 21,065 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its position in shares of Lazard by 141.6% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,263,046 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $97,990,000 after buying an additional 1,326,370 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Lazard by 31.6% during the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,690,943 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $73,214,000 after buying an additional 406,232 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Lazard by 42.2% during the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,644,323 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $71,199,000 after buying an additional 487,574 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 54.80% of the company's stock.

Lazard Stock Performance

NYSE LAZ opened at $51.58 on Thursday. The company's 50 day moving average is $54.57 and its 200-day moving average is $47.58. Lazard, Inc. has a 12-month low of $31.97 and a 12-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 firm has a market cap of $5.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.79 and a beta of 1.37.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $796.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $674.13 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.52 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 16.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.9%. Lazard's payout ratio is 68.97%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on LAZ. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Lazard from $38.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Lazard from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $60.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Monday, August 25th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Lazard from $47.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Monday, September 8th. JMP Securities set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Lazard and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Lazard from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. 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. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $55.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Michael Gathy sold 617 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.37, for a total value of $34,163.29. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 32,475 shares of the business's 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 183,274 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,913,290.66. This trade represents a 15.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 108,092 shares of company stock valued at $6,030,986 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.86% of the company's stock.

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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