Morgan Stanley Lowers Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) Price Target to $56.00

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) had its target price reduced by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $63.00 to $56.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the asset manager’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target points to a potential upside of 24.49% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on LAZ. 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 report on Monday, February 3rd. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Lazard from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Lazard from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Lazard from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Lazard has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $54.17.

Lazard Stock Performance

Shares of LAZ stock opened at $44.98 on Thursday. Lazard has a 12 month low of $35.56 and a 12 month high of $61.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 2.24 and a quick ratio of 2.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.91 and a beta of 1.41. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $50.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $51.75.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.09. Lazard had a net margin of 8.98% and a return on equity of 44.58%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Lazard will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Lazard

In other Lazard news, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.32, for a total value of $1,383,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 163,448 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,041,943.36. This represents a 13.27 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 3.14% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of LAZ. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Lazard by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,788,512 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $555,393,000 after acquiring an additional 81,559 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Lazard by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 4,429,776 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $228,045,000 after buying an additional 240,938 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Lazard by 26.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,297,249 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $118,294,000 after buying an additional 483,696 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Lazard by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,250,049 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $113,357,000 after purchasing an additional 206,295 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Lazard by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,948,167 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $98,149,000 after purchasing an additional 55,469 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

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.