HighTower Advisors LLC Sells 333 Shares of Lazard, Inc. $LAZ

HighTower Advisors LLC decreased its position in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 0.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 40,032 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 333 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Lazard were worth $1,733,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of LAZ. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Lazard in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,285,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Lazard by 54.3% in the 4th quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 977 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 344 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Lazard by 25.2% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,094,723 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $56,358,000 after purchasing an additional 220,375 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its stake in shares of Lazard by 101.6% in the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 5,892 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $303,000 after purchasing an additional 2,970 shares during the period. Finally, TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. raised its stake in shares of Lazard by 119.5% in the 4th quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 2,028 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $104,000 after purchasing an additional 1,104 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Lazard from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Citigroup reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Lazard in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on Lazard from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. JMP Securities set a $60.00 target price on Lazard and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Lazard from $33.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lazard currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $51.50.

Lazard Price Performance

Shares of NYSE LAZ opened at $55.7660 on Monday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $51.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $46.43. The company has a market cap of $6.29 billion, a PE ratio of 19.23 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a quick ratio of 2.53, a current ratio of 2.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.15. Lazard, Inc. has a twelve month low of $31.97 and a twelve month high of $61.14.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $796.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $674.13 million. Lazard had a return on equity of 34.33% and a net margin of 9.96%.The business’s revenue was up 16.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.52 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 EPS for the current year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Lazard’s payout ratio is 68.97%.

About Lazard

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.