Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Raises Position in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its position in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ - Free Report) by 11.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 57,095 shares of the asset manager's stock after acquiring an additional 5,680 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC owned approximately 0.05% of Lazard worth $2,472,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Lazard by 153.5% during the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 1,569 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $81,000 after purchasing an additional 950 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp increased its position in Lazard by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 20,787 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $1,070,000 after buying an additional 750 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in Lazard by 128.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 678,617 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $34,935,000 after buying an additional 381,546 shares during the last quarter. Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd purchased a new stake in Lazard in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,647,000. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its holdings in Lazard by 8.4% in the fourth quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 28,113 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $1,447,000 after acquiring an additional 2,169 shares in the last quarter. 54.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on LAZ shares. JMP Securities reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Lazard in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of Lazard from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Lazard from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Lazard from $33.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Lazard from $44.00 to $38.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $46.33.

Lazard Stock Performance

Shares of Lazard stock traded up $0.32 during trading on Friday, hitting $47.91. 2,751,659 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 982,281. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.60, a quick ratio of 3.24 and a current ratio of 3.24. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $43.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $46.29. Lazard, Inc. has a 52-week low of $31.97 and a 52-week high of $61.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.69 and a beta of 1.32.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The asset manager reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.27. Lazard had a return on equity of 37.64% and a net margin of 10.15%. The company had revenue of $669.16 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $698.39 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.66 earnings per share. Lazard's quarterly revenue was down 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 EPS for the current year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 5th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 5th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.17%. Lazard's payout ratio is 69.69%.

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.