Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Trims Stake in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 3.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,064,195 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 34,996 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned 0.94% of Lazard worth $54,785,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its stake in shares of Lazard by 28.0% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,298 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $118,000 after acquiring an additional 503 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Lazard by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,862,389 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $95,876,000 after purchasing an additional 90,152 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. grew its stake in shares of Lazard by 8.4% in the 4th quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 28,113 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,447,000 after buying an additional 2,169 shares during the period. Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Lazard during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,647,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Lazard by 128.4% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 678,617 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $34,935,000 after buying an additional 381,546 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Lazard from $63.00 to $56.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Lazard from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. 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 research note on Monday, February 3rd. Wolfe Research cut shares of Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Lazard from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $54.17.

Lazard Price Performance

NYSE LAZ opened at $44.90 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $50.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $51.78. Lazard, Inc. has a 52-week low of $35.56 and a 52-week high of $61.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.88 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 2.24 and a quick ratio of 2.24.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.09. Lazard had a net margin of 8.98% and a return on equity of 44.58%. Equities research analysts predict that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.45%. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio is currently 75.19%.

Insider Activity

In other Lazard news, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.32, for a total transaction of $1,383,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 163,448 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,041,943.36. This represents a 13.27 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 3.14% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Lazard Company 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.