Crestwood Advisors Group LLC Has $9.52 Million Stake in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)

Crestwood Advisors Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 0.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 184,965 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 738 shares during the quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in Lazard were worth $9,522,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Creative Planning acquired a new position in shares of Lazard in the third quarter valued at $421,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lazard by 348.9% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 17,604 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $887,000 after buying an additional 13,682 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in Lazard in the 3rd quarter valued at about $235,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Lazard in the 3rd quarter valued at about $50,000. Finally, US Bancorp DE lifted its position in Lazard by 2,053.6% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 5,104 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $257,000 after acquiring an additional 4,867 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Lazard from $51.00 to $44.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Lazard from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Wolfe Research downgraded Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. JMP Securities upped their price target on shares of Lazard from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Lazard from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.33.

Insider Activity at Lazard

In other news, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.32, for a total transaction of $1,383,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 163,448 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,041,943.36. This represents a 13.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 3.86% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Lazard Trading Down 4.9 %

Shares of LAZ stock opened at $49.46 on Monday. Lazard, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $35.56 and a fifty-two week high of $61.14. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $51.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $51.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a current ratio of 2.24. The company has a market cap of $5.58 billion, a PE ratio of 18.59 and a beta of 1.41.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.09. Lazard had a return on equity of 44.58% and a net margin of 8.98%. Equities analysts predict that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 21st. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 75.19%.

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.