Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) Rating Reiterated by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

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

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

Lazard Trading Up 1.2 %

LAZ stock opened at $39.44 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.51, a current ratio of 1.62 and a quick ratio of 1.62. Lazard has a 1-year low of $25.82 and a 1-year high of $42.24. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $35.49. The company has a market capitalization of $4.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -112.68 and a beta of 1.46.

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

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. Lazard’s payout ratio is -571.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lazard

In other 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 owns 227,448 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,950,078.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 3.14% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new position in Lazard in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Larson Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Lazard during the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. SYSTM Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Lazard in the 1st quarter valued at about $48,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in Lazard in the 3rd quarter worth about $60,000. Finally, Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. bought a new position in Lazard in the 3rd quarter worth about $210,000. Institutional investors own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

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.