State Street Corp Grows Stock Position in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)

State Street Corp boosted its position in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 2.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,948,167 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 55,469 shares during the period. State Street Corp owned approximately 1.73% of Lazard worth $98,149,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of LAZ. Claro Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Lazard by 10,306.7% in the 3rd 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 during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Lazard by 5,770.1% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,064,431 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $53,626,000 after purchasing an additional 1,046,298 shares in the last quarter. Azora Capital LP acquired a new stake in Lazard in the third quarter valued at about $13,560,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Lazard by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,250,049 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $113,357,000 after purchasing an additional 206,295 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Lazard during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $7,102,000. 54.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on LAZ shares. StockNews.com cut Lazard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Lazard in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $51.00 target price on the stock. 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 note on Tuesday, October 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Lazard from $59.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Lazard from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $60.00 to $63.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.43.

Lazard Stock Performance

NYSE:LAZ opened at $53.00 on Monday. Lazard, Inc. has a twelve month low of $33.65 and a twelve month high of $61.14. The company has a market capitalization of $5.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.12 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a current ratio of 2.24, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $54.40 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $47.92.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last issued 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 company had revenue of $646.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $644.22 million. Lazard had a return on equity of 42.20% and a net margin of 8.28%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.10 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Lazard, Inc. will post 2.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.77%. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio is currently 79.68%.

Lazard 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.