Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) Receives $53.00 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages

Shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) have earned an average rating of “Hold” from the seven ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $53.00.

Several research firms have recently commented on LAZ. JMP Securities upped their target price on Lazard from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. 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. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Lazard from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Lazard from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Lazard from $59.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st.

Insider Transactions at Lazard

In other news, Chairman Kenneth M. Jacobs sold 1,999 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total value of $99,969.99. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 1,727,723 shares in the company, valued at $86,403,427.23. This represents a 0.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold 176,497 shares of company stock valued at $8,658,086 over the last three months. Company insiders own 3.86% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lazard

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Lazard by 1.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,678,365 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $447,103,000 after acquiring an additional 152,857 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Lazard by 10.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,250,049 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $113,357,000 after buying an additional 206,295 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in 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. Janus Henderson Group PLC acquired a new stake in Lazard in the first quarter valued at approximately $65,650,000. Finally, Claro Advisors LLC grew its position in Lazard by 10,306.7% in the third quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 1,235,793 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $62,259,000 after acquiring an additional 1,223,918 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

Lazard Stock Performance

Lazard stock opened at $55.76 on Friday. 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 has a 12 month low of $26.25 and a 12 month high of $61.14. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $51.26 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $45.38. The company has a market cap of $6.29 billion, a PE ratio of 22.33 and a beta of 1.38.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The asset manager reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.41 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $646.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $644.22 million. Lazard had a net margin of 8.28% and a return on equity of 42.20%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 21.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.10 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Lazard will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 8th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.59%. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.