Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) Given New $52.00 Price Target at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) had its price target reduced by analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $57.00 to $52.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “market perform” rating on the asset manager’s stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ price objective points to a potential upside of 11.16% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts also recently weighed in on LAZ. Wolfe Research downgraded Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Lazard from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $60.00 to $63.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Lazard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. JMP Securities increased their price target on shares of Lazard from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $53.17.

Lazard Stock Up 2.2 %

Shares of Lazard stock opened at $46.78 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $5.28 billion, a PE ratio of 18.64 and a beta of 1.40. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $53.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a current ratio of 2.24. Lazard has a 52-week low of $35.56 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 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $646.00 million during 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 period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.10 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Lazard will post 2.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lazard

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Richardson Financial Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of Lazard by 1,125.0% during the second quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 735 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 675 shares during the period. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Lazard during the 3rd quarter worth $50,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Lazard during the second quarter worth $87,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Lazard during the second quarter worth $211,000. Finally, My Legacy Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Lazard in the third quarter valued at about $215,000. 54.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.