Lazard Ltd (NYSE:LAZ) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Lazard Ltd (NYSE:LAZ – Get Rating) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the eight brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $39.71.

LAZ has been the topic of several research reports. Piper Sandler cut their price target on Lazard from $45.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded Lazard from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $38.00 to $30.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 13th. StockNews.com cut Lazard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Lazard from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut Lazard from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $40.00 to $30.00 in a report on Monday, July 18th.

Lazard Stock Down 1.2 %

LAZ opened at $37.27 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $34.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $35.22. Lazard has a twelve month low of $30.72 and a twelve month high of $53.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.04, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.70. The firm has a market cap of $3.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.81 and a beta of 1.43.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 28th. The asset manager reported $0.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.06. Lazard had a return on equity of 56.01% and a net margin of 16.85%. The business had revenue of $676.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $666.39 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.28 earnings per share. Lazard’s quarterly revenue was down 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Lazard will post 3.98 EPS for the current year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 19th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 8th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 5th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.37%. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio is currently 39.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, President Alexander F. Stern sold 70,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.29, for a total transaction of $2,470,300.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 209,258 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,384,714.82. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 3.86% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lazard

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Lazard by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,806,160 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $338,313,000 after acquiring an additional 75,453 shares during the period. Ariel Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Lazard by 5.4% in the 1st quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 8,560,437 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $295,335,000 after buying an additional 439,866 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Lazard by 4.7% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,606,153 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $158,912,000 after buying an additional 206,787 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Lazard by 7.2% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,247,090 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $77,525,000 after purchasing an additional 150,723 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Lazard by 27.2% during the 1st quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,007,185 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $69,248,000 after purchasing an additional 429,669 shares during the last quarter.

Lazard Company Profile

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Lazard Ltd, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a financial advisory and asset management firm in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Central and South America. It operates in two segments, Financial Advisory and Asset Management. The Financial Advisory segment offers various financial advisory services regarding mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, capital advisory, shareholder advisory, capital raising, sovereign advisory, and other strategic advisory matters.

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