Zacks Research Forecasts Lazard's FY2025 Earnings (NYSE:LAZ)

Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ - Free Report) - Equities research analysts at Zacks Research raised their FY2025 earnings estimates for shares of Lazard in a report released on Monday, June 9th. Zacks Research analyst R. Department now forecasts that the asset manager will post earnings of $2.31 per share for the year, up from their previous forecast of $2.30. The consensus estimate for Lazard's current full-year earnings is $4.24 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for Lazard's Q4 2025 earnings at $0.88 EPS, Q2 2026 earnings at $0.70 EPS, Q3 2026 earnings at $0.89 EPS, Q4 2026 earnings at $0.89 EPS, Q1 2027 earnings at $1.02 EPS and FY2027 earnings at $4.78 EPS.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. JMP Securities reissued a "market outperform" rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Lazard in a report on Monday, April 28th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Lazard from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Lazard from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and lowered their price target for the company from $56.00 to $33.00 in a report on Monday, April 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Lazard from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Lazard from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a "sell" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $44.33.

Lazard Stock Performance

Lazard stock traded up $0.31 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $44.12. The company had a trading volume of 671,508 shares, compared to its average volume of 980,441. The firm has a market cap of $4.98 billion, a PE ratio of 16.59 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 2.24 and a quick ratio of 2.24. Lazard has a one year low of $31.97 and a one year high of $61.14. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $40.93 and a 200 day moving average of $47.17.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The asset manager reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.27. The company had revenue of $669.16 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $698.39 million. Lazard had a net margin of 8.98% and a return on equity of 44.58%. Lazard's quarterly revenue was down 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.66 EPS.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 5th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 5th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.53%. Lazard's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 69.69%.

Insider Transactions at Lazard

In other news, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 64,539 shares of Lazard stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.24, for a total transaction of $2,919,744.36. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 234,824 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,623,437.76. The trade was a 21.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 2.26% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lazard

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of LAZ. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Lazard by 2,324.4% during the first 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 during the last quarter. Amundi increased its stake in Lazard by 141.6% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,263,046 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $97,990,000 after purchasing an additional 1,326,370 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Lazard in the fourth quarter valued at $59,962,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in Lazard by 98.7% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,284,711 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $66,137,000 after purchasing an additional 638,169 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in Lazard by 335.1% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 734,962 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $37,836,000 after purchasing an additional 566,051 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 54.80% of the company's stock.

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.