Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) Receives $52.29 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the seven brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have given a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $54.00.

LAZ has been the topic of several recent research reports. StockNews.com cut shares of Lazard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Friday. JMP Securities increased their price objective on Lazard from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $65.00 to $57.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on Lazard from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp boosted its position in Lazard by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,948,167 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $98,149,000 after acquiring an additional 55,469 shares during the period. Interval Partners LP purchased a new position in Lazard during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,626,000. Point72 Europe London LLP acquired a new position in Lazard in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,779,000. Arizona State Retirement System purchased a new stake in Lazard in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $934,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Lazard by 4.1% during the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,043,754 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $78,031,000 after buying an additional 79,889 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

Lazard Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE LAZ opened at $49.47 on Friday. Lazard has a 1 year low of $35.56 and a 1 year high of $61.14. The firm has a market cap of $5.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.71 and a beta of 1.40. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $54.40 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $49.15. 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 (NYSE:LAZ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The asset manager reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.41 by ($0.03). Lazard had a net margin of 8.28% and a return on equity of 42.20%. The firm had revenue of $646.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $644.22 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.10 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 21.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Lazard will post 2.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.04%. Lazard’s payout ratio is currently 79.68%.

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.