Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) have received an average rating of “Hold” from the seven brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $52.29.

LAZ has been the topic of several research reports. Morgan Stanley downgraded Lazard from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $60.00 to $63.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $65.00 to $57.00 in a research note on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Lazard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. UBS Group raised their target price 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, Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of Lazard in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $51.00 price target for the company.

Lazard Trading Down 0.1 %

NYSE LAZ opened at $51.96 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $5.86 billion, a PE ratio of 20.70 and a beta of 1.38. Lazard has a 12 month low of $34.25 and a 12 month high of $61.14. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $54.50 and its 200-day moving average price is $48.58. The company has a current ratio of 2.24, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The asset manager reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by ($0.03). Lazard had a return on equity of 42.20% and a net margin of 8.28%. The company had revenue of $646.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $644.22 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.10 earnings per share. Lazard’s revenue was up 21.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Lazard will post 2.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The company 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio is currently 79.68%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Lazard by 12.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 278,877 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,648,000 after buying an additional 31,211 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank acquired a new stake in Lazard in the second quarter worth about $1,089,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Lazard by 4.1% during the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,043,754 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $78,031,000 after acquiring an additional 79,889 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Lazard during the second quarter valued at about $150,000. Finally, Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new position in shares of Lazard in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $256,000. 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.