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

Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the seven analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $53.50.

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of Lazard from $57.00 to $52.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. JMP Securities lifted their target price on shares of Lazard from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Lazard from $59.00 to $51.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. 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 research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut shares of Lazard from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $60.00 to $63.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th.

Lazard Stock Up 1.6 %

Lazard stock opened at $53.51 on Wednesday. Lazard has a fifty-two week low of $35.56 and a fifty-two week 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 50 day moving average price of $52.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $50.76. The company has a market capitalization of $6.03 billion, a PE ratio of 21.32 and a beta of 1.40.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lazard

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

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.