Park Avenue Securities LLC Purchases Shares of 6,393 Lazard, Inc. $LAZ

Park Avenue Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 6,393 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $307,000.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of LAZ. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Lazard by 2,324.4% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,099,179 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $264,096,000 after acquiring an additional 5,847,608 shares during the period. Amundi raised its position in shares of Lazard by 141.6% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,263,046 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $97,990,000 after purchasing an additional 1,326,370 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Lazard by 42.2% during the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,644,323 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $71,199,000 after purchasing an additional 487,574 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Lazard by 31.6% during the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,690,943 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $73,214,000 after purchasing an additional 406,232 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Lazard during the 1st quarter worth about $10,998,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Lazard from $38.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Zacks Research cut shares of Lazard from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Lazard from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $60.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Monday, August 25th. Citigroup reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Lazard in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Lazard from $47.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $55.00.

Lazard Trading Down 0.7%

NYSE LAZ opened at $52.76 on Wednesday. Lazard, Inc. has a 12 month low of $31.97 and a 12 month high of $61.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 2.53. The company has a market capitalization of $5.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.19 and a beta of 1.35. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $54.64 and its 200 day moving average price is $47.55.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.14. Lazard had a net margin of 9.96% and a return on equity of 34.33%. The company had revenue of $796.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $674.13 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.52 EPS. Lazard’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.97%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lazard news, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.95, for a total transaction of $2,847,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 227,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,979,759.25. This trade represents a 17.99% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 32,475 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.09, for a total transaction of $1,756,572.75. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 183,274 shares in the company, valued at $9,913,290.66. The trade was a 15.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 108,092 shares of company stock valued at $6,030,986. Insiders own 2.26% of the company’s stock.

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.