Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp Lowers Holdings in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)

Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp reduced its stake in shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 3.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 47,741 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,722 shares during the quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp’s holdings in Lazard were worth $2,458,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Lazard in the 4th quarter valued at $202,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Lazard by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,788,512 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $555,393,000 after acquiring an additional 81,559 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lazard by 44.6% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 41,507 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,137,000 after acquiring an additional 12,803 shares in the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in shares of Lazard during the 4th quarter valued at about $947,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. increased its stake in shares of Lazard by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 87,082 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,483,000 after purchasing an additional 5,243 shares in the last quarter. 54.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Lazard

In other Lazard news, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 64,539 shares of Lazard stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.56, for a total transaction of $2,940,396.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 170,285 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,758,184.60. The trade was a 27.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 35,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.64, for a total transaction of $1,877,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 188,448 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,108,350.72. This trade represents a 15.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 189,078 shares of company stock worth $9,120,541 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.86% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LAZ has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Lazard from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group increased their target price on Lazard from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com raised shares of Lazard from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of Lazard from $51.00 to $44.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Wolfe Research cut shares of Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $54.17.

Lazard Stock Performance

NYSE:LAZ opened at $43.32 on Tuesday. Lazard, Inc. has a twelve month low of $35.56 and a twelve month high of $61.14. The company has a market cap of $4.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.28 and a beta of 1.41. 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 company’s 50-day moving average price is $49.94 and its 200-day moving average price is $51.61.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.09. Lazard had a return on equity of 44.58% and a net margin of 8.98%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.62%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 75.19%.

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.