Rhumbline Advisers Has $5.53 Million Stock Holdings in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)

Rhumbline Advisers decreased its holdings in shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 1.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 127,613 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,715 shares during the quarter. Rhumbline Advisers owned approximately 0.11% of Lazard worth $5,526,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. acquired a new stake in Lazard during the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in Lazard during the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its position in Lazard by 54.3% during the 4th quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 977 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $50,000 after buying an additional 344 shares during the period. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new position in Lazard during the 4th quarter worth $53,000. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC increased its position in Lazard by 85.8% during the 4th quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 1,137 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $59,000 after buying an additional 525 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LAZ has been the topic of several recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Lazard from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Wall Street Zen cut Lazard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Lazard in a research report on Monday, April 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Lazard from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut Lazard from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $56.00 to $33.00 in a research report on Monday, April 7th. 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $44.33.

Lazard Stock Up 0.7%

Shares of NYSE LAZ opened at $44.12 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a current ratio of 2.24. Lazard, Inc. has a 52 week low of $31.97 and a 52 week high of $61.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.59 and a beta of 1.32. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $40.93 and its 200 day moving average is $47.17.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 44.58% and a net margin of 8.98%. The company had revenue of $669.16 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $698.39 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.66 earnings per share. Lazard’s revenue was down 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 16th. Investors of record on Monday, May 5th were given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.53%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 5th. Lazard’s payout ratio is currently 69.69%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 64,539 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.56, for a total value of $2,940,396.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 170,285 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,758,184.60. This trade represents a 27.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 2.26% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.