Handelsbanken Fonder AB Decreases Stock Holdings in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB cut its stake in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 38.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 19,600 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 12,000 shares during the quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Lazard were worth $682,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in LAZ. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its holdings in Lazard by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 527,077 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $18,342,000 after buying an additional 2,225 shares in the last quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Lazard by 25.2% in the fourth quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 140,285 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,882,000 after purchasing an additional 28,250 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Lazard by 1,165.9% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 176,491 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,142,000 after purchasing an additional 162,549 shares during the last quarter. Sweet Financial Partners LLC raised its stake in Lazard by 41.7% during the fourth quarter. Sweet Financial Partners LLC now owns 17,000 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $592,000 after purchasing an additional 5,000 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Lazard by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,519,785 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $326,219,000 after buying an additional 42,455 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on LAZ shares. TheStreet raised shares of Lazard from a “d+” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $58.00 price objective on shares of Lazard in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Lazard from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $49.00 price target (down from $51.00) on shares of Lazard in a research report on Friday. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Lazard from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $45.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lazard

In other news, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 75,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.35, for a total transaction of $2,951,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 227,448 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,950,078.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 3.14% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Lazard Trading Up 1.2 %

NYSE LAZ opened at $39.44 on Tuesday. Lazard, Inc. has a one year low of $25.82 and a one year high of $42.24. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.49. The firm has a market cap of $4.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -112.68 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.51, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a current ratio of 1.62.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The asset manager reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $765.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $678.57 million. Lazard had a negative net margin of 0.63% and a positive return on equity of 37.47%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 41.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.26) earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Lazard, Inc. will post 3.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.07%. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -571.41%.

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.