Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the seven analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $53.50.

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on LAZ shares. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Lazard from $59.00 to $51.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on Lazard from $51.00 to $44.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Morgan Stanley cut Lazard from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $60.00 to $63.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Lazard from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Lazard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D acquired a new position in Lazard in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,755,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Lazard by 19.3% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 481,406 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $18,370,000 after acquiring an additional 77,974 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its holdings in shares of Lazard by 36.2% during the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 102,696 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,901,000 after acquiring an additional 27,287 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. raised its holdings in shares of Lazard by 12.7% during the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 72,003 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,749,000 after acquiring an additional 8,115 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Xponance Inc. acquired a new stake in Lazard during the second quarter valued at $532,000. 54.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Lazard Stock Up 4.4 %

Shares of NYSE:LAZ opened at $53.38 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $6.02 billion, a PE ratio of 21.27 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $53.20 and a 200 day simple moving average of $50.21. The company has a current ratio of 2.24, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72. Lazard has a 12-month low of $35.56 and a 12-month high of $61.14.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The asset manager reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $646.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $644.22 million. Lazard had a return on equity of 42.20% and a net margin of 8.28%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.10 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Lazard will post 2.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.75%. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 79.68%.

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.