Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Purchases 1,652 Shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its holdings in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 3.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 51,415 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,652 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Lazard were worth $2,647,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Lazard by 2.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,948,167 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $98,149,000 after purchasing an additional 55,469 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Lazard by 2.2% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,772,237 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $89,285,000 after acquiring an additional 37,681 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lazard by 348.9% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 17,604 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $887,000 after purchasing an additional 13,682 shares during the period. Rheos Capital Works Inc. increased its stake in shares of Lazard by 118.8% during the third quarter. Rheos Capital Works Inc. now owns 175,000 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $8,817,000 after buying an additional 95,000 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Lazard by 5,770.1% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,064,431 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $53,626,000 after purchasing an additional 1,046,298 shares during the period. 54.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Lazard Stock Down 1.2 %

LAZ stock opened at $54.52 on Friday. Lazard, Inc. has a one year low of $35.56 and a one year high of $61.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a current ratio of 2.24. The firm has a market cap of $6.15 billion, a PE ratio of 21.72 and a beta of 1.40. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $52.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $50.88.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.09. Lazard had a net margin of 8.28% and a return on equity of 42.20%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Lazard, Inc. will post 2.06 EPS for the current year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 10th. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio is presently 79.68%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LAZ has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Lazard from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Wolfe Research downgraded Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Lazard from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Lazard from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Lazard from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.00.

Lazard 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.