Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Has $1.92 Million Stock Position in Lazard Ltd (NYSE:LAZ)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC cut its stake in shares of Lazard Ltd (NYSE:LAZ – Get Rating) by 11.9% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 60,321 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 8,133 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Lazard were worth $1,920,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Spire Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of Lazard during the 3rd quarter worth about $29,000. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Lazard during the second quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its stake in Lazard by 489.4% in the third quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,727 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $55,000 after purchasing an additional 1,434 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in Lazard by 64.3% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,839 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $63,000 after purchasing an additional 720 shares during the period. Finally, First Manhattan Co. boosted its position in shares of Lazard by 267.5% during the first quarter. First Manhattan Co. now owns 2,205 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $75,000 after purchasing an additional 1,605 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 63.55% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on LAZ. StockNews.com cut shares of Lazard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 3rd. JMP Securities lowered their price target on Lazard from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.50.

Lazard Price Performance

LAZ stock opened at $33.18 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $38.01 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.43. Lazard Ltd has a 1 year low of $30.20 and a 1 year high of $43.44. The stock has a market cap of $3.74 billion, a PE ratio of 9.56 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.50.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 2nd. The asset manager reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.72 by ($0.03). Lazard had a return on equity of 48.82% and a net margin of 12.52%. The firm had revenue of $731.86 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $655.09 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.92 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 27.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Lazard Ltd will post 3.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 13th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 10th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.03%. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio is currently 57.64%.

About Lazard

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Lazard Ltd. is a financial advisory and asset management firm, which engages in the provision of crafting solutions to the clients, including corporations, governments, institutions, partnerships, and individuals. It operates through the Financial Advisory and Asset Management segments. The Financial Advisory segment offers corporate, partnership, institutional, government, sovereign, and individual clients, an array of financial advisory services regarding mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, capital structure, capital raising, and corporate preparedness.