Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) Price Target Lowered to $55.00 at JMP Securities

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) had its target price reduced by research analysts at JMP Securities from $60.00 to $55.00 in a report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “market outperform” rating on the asset manager’s stock. JMP Securities’ target price would indicate a potential upside of 61.38% from the company’s current price.

LAZ has been the subject of several other research reports. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. StockNews.com raised shares of Lazard from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Lazard from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group lifted their target price on Lazard from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered Lazard from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $56.00 to $33.00 in a research report on Monday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.67.

Lazard Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of LAZ stock traded up $0.04 on Tuesday, hitting $34.08. The stock had a trading volume of 892,477 shares, compared to its average volume of 914,857. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $48.54 and its 200-day moving average is $51.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.83 and a beta of 1.27. Lazard has a 52-week low of $31.97 and a 52-week high of $61.14. 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 (NYSE:LAZ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.09. Lazard had a return on equity of 44.58% and a net margin of 8.98%. As a group, research analysts expect that Lazard will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.32, for a total transaction of $1,383,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 163,448 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,041,943.36. This trade represents a 13.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 64,539 shares of Lazard stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.56, for a total transaction of $2,940,396.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 170,285 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,758,184.60. This trade represents a 27.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 189,078 shares of company stock valued at $9,120,541 over the last three months. Company insiders own 3.86% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lazard

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Lazard by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,788,512 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $555,393,000 after buying an additional 81,559 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in shares of Lazard by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 4,429,776 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $228,045,000 after acquiring an additional 240,938 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Lazard by 26.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,297,249 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $118,294,000 after acquiring an additional 483,696 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Lazard by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,250,049 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $113,357,000 after purchasing an additional 206,295 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp grew its position in Lazard by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,948,167 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $98,149,000 after purchasing an additional 55,469 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

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.