Victory Capital Management Inc. Buys 487,574 Shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)

Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ - Free Report) by 42.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,644,323 shares of the asset manager's stock after acquiring an additional 487,574 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned about 1.46% of Lazard worth $71,199,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lifted its position in shares of Lazard by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 48,129 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $2,478,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Lazard by 1.8% during the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 19,558 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $847,000 after buying an additional 343 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Lazard by 54.3% in the fourth quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 977 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 344 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of Lazard by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 95,707 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $4,927,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the period. Finally, DAVENPORT & Co LLC boosted its holdings in Lazard by 5.1% in the 1st quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 8,275 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $358,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.80% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on LAZ. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Lazard from $33.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. JMP Securities set a $60.00 target price on Lazard and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Lazard from $38.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Citigroup reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Lazard in a report on Monday. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Lazard from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $51.00.

Lazard Price Performance

Shares of NYSE LAZ traded up $0.15 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $54.31. 773,420 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 962,508. Lazard, Inc. has a 12 month low of $31.97 and a 12 month high of $61.14. 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 stock's 50-day simple moving average is $46.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $46.19. The firm has a market cap of $6.12 billion, a PE ratio of 18.92 and a beta of 1.33.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.27. The firm had revenue of $669.16 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $698.39 million. Lazard had a net margin of 10.15% and a return on equity of 37.64%. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.66 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 5th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.68%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 5th. Lazard's payout ratio is currently 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.