Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) Raised to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) was upgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Sunday, Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other analysts also recently commented on LAZ. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Lazard from $44.00 to $40.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 7th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Lazard from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 23rd. Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Lazard in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of Lazard from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Zacks Research cut Lazard from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 27th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.50.

Lazard Stock Up 2.1%

LAZ opened at $39.16 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $38.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $44.25. Lazard has a 1-year low of $34.13 and a 1-year high of $58.75. The stock has a market cap of $4.30 billion, a PE ratio of 22.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a current ratio of 2.66, a quick ratio of 2.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $804.62 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $844.23 million. Lazard had a return on equity of 20.76% and a net margin of 5.55%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Lazard will post 1.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Lazard

In other Lazard news, CEO Peter Orszag sold 125,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.52, for a total transaction of $5,440,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 260,942 shares in the company, valued at $11,356,195.84. This represents a 32.39% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.95% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lazard

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Lazard during the second quarter worth approximately $379,092,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Lazard by 10.1% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,900,615 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $80,713,000 after acquiring an additional 174,199 shares during the period. Jupiter Topco LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Lazard during the 2nd quarter worth $67,275,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in shares of Lazard by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,431,358 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $60,806,000 after purchasing an additional 48,607 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in shares of Lazard in the second quarter worth $42,122,000. 54.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Lazard

Lazard, Ltd. is a global financial advisory and asset management firm that serves corporations, financial institutions, governments, sovereign entities and individuals. Its Financial Advisory business provides advice on mergers and acquisitions, strategic matters, capital structure, restructuring, capital raising and other complex financial transactions.

Through its Asset Management business, Lazard offers investment strategies across equities, fixed income, private markets, alternatives and multi-asset portfolios.