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

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating restated by equities research analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $49.00 price objective on the asset manager’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $51.00. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ target price would indicate a potential upside of 25.67% from the stock’s current price.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the company. TheStreet raised Lazard from a “d+” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Wolfe Research raised Lazard from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. StockNews.com raised Lazard from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $58.00 price target on shares of Lazard in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Lazard from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $45.67.

Lazard Stock Performance

LAZ opened at $38.99 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.40 billion, a PE ratio of -111.40 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.51. Lazard has a 1 year low of $25.82 and a 1 year high of $42.24. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $39.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.39.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The asset manager reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $765.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $678.57 million. Lazard had a positive return on equity of 37.47% and a negative net margin of 0.63%. Lazard’s quarterly revenue was up 41.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.26) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Lazard will post 3.22 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lazard news, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 75,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.35, for a total value of $2,951,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 227,448 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,950,078.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 3.86% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lazard

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in LAZ. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Lazard during the fourth quarter valued at $47,063,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its stake in shares of Lazard by 265.0% during the third quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 791,158 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $24,740,000 after acquiring an additional 574,379 shares during the period. UBS Group AG lifted its stake in shares of Lazard by 84.3% during the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,019,121 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $31,603,000 after acquiring an additional 466,301 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Lazard by 4.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,563,521 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $296,565,000 after acquiring an additional 436,034 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its stake in shares of Lazard by 150.3% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 531,900 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $18,509,000 after acquiring an additional 319,384 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

Lazard Company Profile

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.