Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) Receives Average Rating of "Hold" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Lazard, Inc. has received an average rating of "Hold" from eleven brokerages, with two analysts issuing sell ratings, six holding, and three buying.
• The company's quarterly earnings exceeded expectations, reporting $0.56 EPS against an anticipated $0.39, with total revenue of $782.43 million.
• Lazard announced a quarterly dividend of $0.50 per share, reflecting an annualized yield of 4.1%, with key details regarding the dividend payment and record date provided.

Shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average rating of "Hold" from the eleven brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $55.2857.

Several research firms have commented on LAZ. JMP Securities set a $60.00 target price on shares of Lazard and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on shares of Lazard from $65.00 to $60.00 and set a "moderate buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 13th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Lazard from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Lazard from $47.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a "hold (c+)" rating on shares of Lazard in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th.

Lazard Stock Down 1.5%

Shares of Lazard stock opened at $49.03 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 2.53. Lazard has a 1-year low of $31.97 and a 1-year high of $61.14. The business's fifty day moving average price is $53.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $48.25. The company has a market capitalization of $5.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.91 and a beta of 1.37.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.17. Lazard had a return on equity of 34.33% and a net margin of 9.96%.The company had revenue of $782.43 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $739.91 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.38 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Lazard will post 4.24 EPS for the current year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 3rd. Lazard's payout ratio is presently 68.97%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lazard news, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 50,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.95, for a total value of $2,847,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 227,915 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $12,979,759.25. This represents a 17.99% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Michael Gathy sold 617 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.37, for a total transaction of $34,163.29. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 108,092 shares of company stock worth $6,030,986. 3.86% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. 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 valued at $264,096,000 after acquiring an additional 5,847,608 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Lazard during the second quarter worth $66,547,000. Amundi lifted its holdings in shares of Lazard by 141.6% during 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 during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Lazard during the second quarter valued at $34,305,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Lazard by 42.2% in the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,644,323 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $71,199,000 after purchasing an additional 487,574 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.

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