Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) Shares Acquired by Baird Financial Group Inc.

Baird Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 24.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 10,709 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,109 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Lazard were worth $551,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in LAZ. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of Lazard by 12.2% during the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 6,672 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $343,000 after acquiring an additional 728 shares during the period. Empirical Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Lazard during the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,813,000. O Keefe Stevens Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in Lazard by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. O Keefe Stevens Advisory Inc. now owns 211,046 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,865,000 after buying an additional 2,386 shares in the last quarter. My Legacy Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Lazard by 29.4% during the fourth quarter. My Legacy Advisors LLC now owns 5,527 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $275,000 after buying an additional 1,255 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Lazard by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC now owns 9,790 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $504,000 after buying an additional 240 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Lazard news, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 64,539 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.56, for a total value of $2,940,396.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 170,285 shares in the company, valued at $7,758,184.60. This represents a 27.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 3.86% of the company’s stock.

Lazard Trading Down 0.4%

Lazard stock opened at $46.27 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $40.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $48.77. Lazard, Inc. has a 52 week low of $31.97 and a 52 week high of $61.14. 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 market capitalization of $5.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.39 and a beta of 1.28.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 25th. The asset manager reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.27. Lazard had a net margin of 8.98% and a return on equity of 44.58%. The firm had revenue of $669.16 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $698.39 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.66 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 EPS for the current year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 16th. Investors of record on Monday, May 5th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.32%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 5th. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio is 69.69%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on LAZ. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Lazard from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Lazard in a report on Monday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Lazard from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $56.00 to $33.00 in a report on Monday, April 7th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Lazard from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Lazard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $44.33.

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.