Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) Stock Price

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) had its price objective trimmed by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $57.00 to $52.00 in a research report released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a market perform rating on the asset manager’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on LAZ. Morgan Stanley cut Lazard from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $60.00 to $63.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Wolfe Research lowered Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. StockNews.com downgraded Lazard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. JMP Securities upped their price objective on Lazard from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on Lazard from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Lazard currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.17.

Lazard Trading Down 3.3 %

Shares of LAZ stock opened at $45.76 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.23 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a current ratio of 2.24, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $54.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $49.83. Lazard has a twelve month low of $35.56 and a twelve month high of $61.14.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The asset manager reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $644.22 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.10 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 21.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Lazard will post 2.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.37%. Lazard’s payout ratio is 79.68%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lazard

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Claro Advisors LLC increased its stake in Lazard by 10,306.7% during the 3rd quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 1,235,793 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $62,259,000 after buying an additional 1,223,918 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Lazard by 5,770.1% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,064,431 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $53,626,000 after acquiring an additional 1,046,298 shares in the last quarter. Azora Capital LP acquired a new position in shares of Lazard during the 3rd quarter valued at $13,560,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Lazard by 10.1% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,250,049 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $113,357,000 after acquiring an additional 206,295 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Lazard in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $8,430,000. 54.80% of the stock is currently owned by 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.