Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Reaffirms Outperform Rating for Lazard (NYSE:LAZ)

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated their outperform rating on shares of Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) in a research report sent to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $49.00 price objective on the asset manager’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $51.00.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on LAZ. Wolfe Research raised Lazard from a peer perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $42.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. TheStreet raised Lazard from a d+ rating to a c+ rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an overweight rating and set a $58.00 target price on shares of Lazard in a report on Thursday, April 11th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Lazard from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Lazard from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lazard presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $45.67.

Lazard Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:LAZ opened at $38.99 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $39.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $35.42. Lazard has a 12-month low of $25.82 and a 12-month high of $42.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.40 billion, a P/E ratio of -111.40 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.51.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The asset manager reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.08. Lazard had a positive return on equity of 37.47% and a negative net margin of 0.63%. The firm had revenue of $765.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $678.57 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.26) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 41.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Lazard will post 3.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.13%. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -571.43%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lazard news, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 75,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.35, for a total value of $2,951,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 227,448 shares in the company, valued at $8,950,078.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 3.86% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Lazard

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of LAZ. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Lazard in the fourth quarter worth about $47,063,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake in shares of Lazard by 265.0% during the third quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 791,158 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $24,740,000 after purchasing an additional 574,379 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG increased its stake in shares of Lazard by 84.3% during the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,019,121 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $31,603,000 after purchasing an additional 466,301 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Lazard by 4.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,563,521 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $296,565,000 after purchasing an additional 436,034 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia increased its stake in shares of Lazard by 150.3% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 531,900 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $18,509,000 after purchasing an additional 319,384 shares in the last quarter. 54.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.