Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Has $12.95 Million Stake in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ - Free Report) by 249.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 251,571 shares of the asset manager's stock after buying an additional 179,511 shares during the quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned approximately 0.22% of Lazard worth $12,952,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in LAZ. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Lazard during the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in Lazard during the fourth quarter worth $41,000. Berbice Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Lazard during the fourth quarter valued at about $46,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted 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 worth $50,000 after buying an additional 344 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Lazard during the 4th quarter worth about $53,000. Institutional investors own 54.80% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Lazard

In related news, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 64,539 shares of Lazard stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.56, for a total transaction of $2,940,396.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 170,285 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,758,184.60. This trade represents a 27.48 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 35,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.64, for a total transaction of $1,877,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 188,448 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,108,350.72. This represents a 15.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 189,078 shares of company stock worth $9,120,541 over the last 90 days. 3.86% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on LAZ. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Lazard from $51.00 to $44.00 and set a "sell" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Lazard from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $56.00 to $33.00 in a research note on Monday, April 7th. JMP Securities reiterated a "market outperform" rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Lazard in a research note on Monday, April 28th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Lazard from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Lazard from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $46.83.

Lazard Price Performance

NYSE:LAZ traded down $0.49 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $40.00. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,403,193 shares, compared to its average volume of 957,913. The company has a current ratio of 2.24, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $41.61 and a 200-day moving average of $49.16. The company has a market capitalization of $4.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.04 and a beta of 1.28. Lazard, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $31.97 and a fifty-two week high of $61.14.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $698.39 million. Lazard had a return on equity of 44.58% and a net margin of 8.98%. The business's revenue was down 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.66 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 5th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.00%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 5th. Lazard's dividend payout ratio is presently 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.