Seaport Res Ptn Issues Negative Forecast for Lazard Earnings

Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) – Analysts at Seaport Res Ptn decreased their FY2024 earnings estimates for Lazard in a research note issued on Monday, January 13th. Seaport Res Ptn analyst J. Mitchell now anticipates that the asset manager will post earnings per share of $2.08 for the year, down from their prior forecast of $2.30. The consensus estimate for Lazard’s current full-year earnings is $2.18 per share. Seaport Res Ptn also issued estimates for Lazard’s Q1 2025 earnings at $0.68 EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at $0.75 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $1.45 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $3.80 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $4.80 EPS.

LAZ has been the subject of several other reports. UBS Group lifted 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. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Lazard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. JMP Securities increased their price objective on shares of Lazard from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded 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 report on Monday, December 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Lazard has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.50.

Lazard Price Performance

Shares of LAZ opened at $49.57 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $5.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.75 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a quick ratio of 2.24, a current ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72. The business’s fifty day moving average is $53.67 and its 200 day moving average is $49.88. Lazard has a 12-month low of $35.56 and a 12-month high of $61.14.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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). Lazard had a net margin of 8.28% and a return on equity of 42.20%. The company had revenue of $646.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $644.22 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.10 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.4% compared to the same quarter last year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.03%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Lazard’s payout ratio is 79.68%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Lazard by 2.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,948,167 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $98,149,000 after buying an additional 55,469 shares during the last quarter. Interval Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of Lazard during the second quarter valued at about $1,626,000. Point72 Europe London LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Lazard during the second quarter valued at about $1,779,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Lazard by 348.9% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 17,604 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $887,000 after buying an additional 13,682 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Lazard by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,772,237 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $89,285,000 after purchasing an additional 37,681 shares during the last quarter. 54.80% of the stock is currently owned by 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.