Lazard (LAZ) Competitors

Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF) and Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, risk, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership and media sentiment.

Which has more risk and volatility, SF or LAZ?

Stifel Financial has a beta of 1.07, indicating that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lazard has a beta of 1.32, indicating that its share price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of SF or LAZ?

82.0% of Stifel Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.8% of Lazard shares are held by institutional investors. 3.3% of Stifel Financial shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.3% of Lazard shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media prefer SF or LAZ?

In the previous week, Lazard had 13 more articles in the media than Stifel Financial. MarketBeat recorded 29 mentions for Lazard and 16 mentions for Stifel Financial. Stifel Financial's average media sentiment score of 0.79 beat Lazard's score of 0.48 indicating that Stifel Financial is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Stifel Financial	9 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Lazard	6 Very Positive mention(s)	5 Positive mention(s)	10 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in SF or LAZ?

Lazard received 343 more outperform votes than Stifel Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 63.64% of users gave Lazard an outperform vote while only 55.09% of users gave Stifel Financial an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Stifel Financial	Outperform Votes 287 55.09%	Underperform Votes 234 44.91%
Lazard	Outperform Votes 630 63.64%	Underperform Votes 360 36.36%

Is SF or LAZ a better dividend stock?

Stifel Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Lazard pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.5%. Stifel Financial pays out 35.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Lazard pays out 69.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Stifel Financial has increased its dividend for 9 consecutive years.

Is SF or LAZ more profitable?

Stifel Financial has a net margin of 14.00% compared to Lazard's net margin of 8.98%. Lazard's return on equity of 44.58% beat Stifel Financial's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Stifel Financial	14.00%	16.59%	2.04%
Lazard	8.98%	44.58%	5.26%

Do analysts prefer SF or LAZ?

Stifel Financial presently has a consensus price target of $105.50, indicating a potential upside of 8.90%. Lazard has a consensus price target of $44.33, indicating a potential upside of 0.48%. Given Stifel Financial's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Stifel Financial is more favorable than Lazard.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Stifel Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.38
Lazard	2 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.86

Which has better earnings & valuation, SF or LAZ?

Stifel Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Lazard. Lazard is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Stifel Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Stifel Financial	$5.00B	1.99	$731.38M	$5.23	18.52
Lazard	$2.97B	1.68	$279.91M	$2.87	15.37

Summary

Stifel Financial beats Lazard on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.