Lazard Ltd (NYSE:LAZ) Shares Sold by Bank of New York Mellon Corp

Bank of New York Mellon Corp lessened its holdings in Lazard Ltd (NYSE:LAZ) by 9.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 250,558 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 27,622 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned about 0.22% of Lazard worth $8,296,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of LAZ. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Lazard during the fourth quarter worth $29,191,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Lazard by 14.1% during the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,750,853 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $121,565,000 after buying an additional 462,677 shares during the period. Ariel Investments LLC lifted its position in Lazard by 5.4% in the first quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 8,560,437 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $295,335,000 after purchasing an additional 439,866 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Lazard by 20.0% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,847,754 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $63,748,000 after buying an additional 307,614 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Lazard by 2,424.0% in the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 310,094 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,267,000 after buying an additional 297,808 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.64% of the company’s stock.

Lazard Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of LAZ stock opened at $35.07 on Monday. Lazard Ltd has a 12-month low of $27.71 and a 12-month high of $43.44. The company has a market capitalization of $3.95 billion, a P/E ratio of -194.83 and a beta of 1.40. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $33.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.85. The company has a quick ratio of 1.56, a current ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.06.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The asset manager reported $0.24 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.13. Lazard had a net margin of 0.07% and a return on equity of 30.45%. The company had revenue of $620.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $572.06 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.92 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Lazard Ltd will post 0.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 7th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 4th. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -1,111.11%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LAZ has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wolfe Research raised shares of Lazard from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 3rd. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Lazard from $32.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Lazard from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $36.00 to $43.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 12th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Lazard in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Lazard from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $31.00 to $36.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 13th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Lazard currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $42.25.

About Lazard

Lazard Ltd, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a financial advisory and asset management firm in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Central and South America. It operates in two segments, Financial Advisory and Asset Management. The Financial Advisory segment offers various financial advisory services regarding mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, capital advisory, shareholder advisory, capital raising, sovereign advisory, and other strategic advisory matters.