State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Cuts Stake in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lessened its stake in shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 13.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 39,991 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 5,965 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Lazard were worth $2,015,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Lazard during the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. grew its position in Lazard by 1,125.0% in the second quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 735 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 675 shares in the last quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC raised its stake in shares of Lazard by 58.9% during the second quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 890 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares during the period. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Lazard during the third quarter worth $50,000. Finally, Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Lazard during the second quarter worth $87,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on LAZ. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Lazard from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. JMP Securities lifted their target price on Lazard from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Lazard from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Lazard from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Lazard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lazard has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $53.00.

Insider Activity at Lazard

In other Lazard news, Chairman Kenneth M. Jacobs sold 1,999 shares of Lazard stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chairman now directly owns 1,727,723 shares in the company, valued at $86,403,427.23. The trade was a 0.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders sold a total of 176,497 shares of company stock valued at $8,658,086 in the last quarter. Insiders own 3.86% of the company’s stock.

Lazard Trading Down 1.4 %

NYSE:LAZ opened at $55.00 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $6.20 billion, a PE ratio of 21.91 and a beta of 1.38. The business’s 50 day moving average is $51.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $45.56. The company has a quick ratio of 2.24, a current ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72. Lazard, Inc. has a 52 week low of $26.25 and a 52 week high of $61.14.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The asset manager reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.41 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $646.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $644.22 million. Lazard had a return on equity of 42.20% and a net margin of 8.28%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.10 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Lazard, Inc. will post 2.31 EPS for the current year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.64%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.