Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) Shares Purchased by Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC

Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 2.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,790 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 240 shares during the period. Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Lazard were worth $504,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on LAZ. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Lazard from $59.00 to $51.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Wolfe Research downgraded Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Lazard from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Lazard from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $60.00 to $63.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Lazard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.50.

Lazard Stock Performance

LAZ stock opened at $51.06 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $5.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.34 and a beta of 1.40. 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $53.20 and a 200 day simple moving average of $50.21. Lazard, Inc. has a 52 week low of $35.56 and a 52 week high of $61.14.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The asset manager reported $0.38 EPS 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 company had revenue of $646.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $644.22 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.10 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 21.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Lazard, Inc. will post 2.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th were given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.92%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Lazard’s payout ratio is currently 79.68%.

Lazard 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.