Amica Retiree Medical Trust Grows Stock Position in Lazard, Inc. $LAZ

Amica Retiree Medical Trust raised its holdings in shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 44.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,922 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,356 shares during the quarter. Amica Retiree Medical Trust’s holdings in Lazard were worth $524,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew 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 valued at $264,096,000 after purchasing an additional 5,847,608 shares during the last quarter. Ariel Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Lazard by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 5,619,280 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $243,315,000 after purchasing an additional 21,065 shares during the last quarter. Amundi lifted its stake in Lazard by 141.6% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,263,046 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $97,990,000 after buying an additional 1,326,370 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in Lazard by 31.6% in the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,690,943 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $73,214,000 after buying an additional 406,232 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Lazard by 42.2% during the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,644,323 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $71,199,000 after buying an additional 487,574 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on LAZ shares. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on Lazard in a report on Friday, October 3rd. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $56.00 price target for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $46.00 price objective on Lazard and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Lazard in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research cut shares of Lazard from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of Lazard from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.00.

Lazard Stock Performance

NYSE LAZ opened at $50.50 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 2.58 and a quick ratio of 2.53. Lazard, Inc. has a 1-year low of $31.97 and a 1-year high of $60.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.96 and a beta of 1.38. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $52.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $49.48.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $782.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $739.91 million. Lazard had a net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 35.02%. The company’s revenue was down 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.38 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 EPS for the current year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 3rd. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 79.05%.

Insider Activity at Lazard

In other Lazard news, CAO Michael Gathy sold 617 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.37, for a total value of $34,163.29. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 32,475 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.09, for a total value of $1,756,572.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 183,274 shares in the company, valued at $9,913,290.66. This trade represents a 15.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 108,092 shares of company stock worth $6,030,986. 3.86% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Lazard Company 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.