Lazard - LAZ Stock Forecast, Price & News

Lazard Ltd, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a financial advisory and asset management firm in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Central and South America. It operates in two segments, Financial Advisory and Asset Management. The Financial Advisory segment offers various financial advisory services regarding mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, capital advisory, shareholder advisory, capital raising, sovereign advisory, and other strategic advisory matters. This segment serves corporate, partnership, institutional, government, sovereign, and individual clients across various industry areas, including consumers, financial institutions, healthcare and life sciences, industrials, power and energy/infrastructure, and real estate, as well as technology, telecommunication, and media and entertainment. The Asset Management segment offers a range of investment solutions, and investment and wealth management services in equity and fixed income strategies; asset allocation strategies; and alternative investments and private equity funds to corporations, public funds, sovereign entities, endowments and foundations, labor funds, financial intermediaries, and private clients. The company was founded in 1848 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on LAZ. StockNews.com cut shares of Lazard from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, July 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Lazard from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered Lazard from a "market perform" rating to an "underperform" rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $38.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 13th. Morgan Stanley cut Lazard from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and decreased their price target for the company from $40.00 to $30.00 in a report on Monday, July 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Lazard from $45.00 to $44.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $39.71.

Lazard Price Performance

Shares of Lazard stock traded up $0.56 during trading on Friday, reaching $39.66. 349,743 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 622,120. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.04, a current ratio of 1.70 and a quick ratio of 1.70. Lazard has a 1-year low of $30.72 and a 1-year high of $53.00. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $34.51 and its 200 day moving average price is $35.10.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ - Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 28th. The asset manager reported $0.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $676.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $666.39 million. Lazard had a return on equity of 56.01% and a net margin of 16.85%. The firm's revenue was down 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.28 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Lazard will post 3.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 19th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 8th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 5th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.04%. Lazard's payout ratio is currently 41.93%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, President Alexander F. Stern sold 70,000 shares of Lazard stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.29, for a total value of $2,470,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 209,258 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,384,714.82. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 3.86% of the company's stock.