Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Grows Holdings in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. lifted its holdings in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 3.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 25,944 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 849 shares during the quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Lazard were worth $1,307,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Lazard by 5,770.1% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,064,431 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $53,626,000 after buying an additional 1,046,298 shares during the period. Aigen Investment Management LP grew its position in shares of Lazard by 50.4% in the 3rd quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP now owns 12,460 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $628,000 after buying an additional 4,178 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. grew its position in shares of Lazard by 12.2% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 5,413 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $273,000 after buying an additional 589 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 206,295 shares during the period. Finally, Callahan Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Lazard by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. Callahan Advisors LLC now owns 45,814 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,308,000 after buying an additional 2,619 shares during the period. 54.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on LAZ shares. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Lazard from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Lazard from $59.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com cut shares of Lazard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. JMP Securities upped their price target on shares of Lazard from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of Lazard in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $51.00 price target on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman Kenneth M. Jacobs sold 86,728 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.02, for a total transaction of $4,338,134.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 1,640,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $82,082,569.90. This represents a 5.02 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders sold 176,497 shares of company stock valued at $8,658,086 in the last quarter. 3.86% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Lazard Price Performance

LAZ opened at $54.98 on Tuesday. Lazard, Inc. has a 52-week low of $26.25 and a 52-week high of $61.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.91 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a current ratio of 2.24. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $51.56 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $45.66.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The asset manager reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.41 by ($0.03). Lazard had a net margin of 8.28% and a return on equity of 42.20%. The business had revenue of $646.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $644.22 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.10 EPS. Lazard’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Lazard, Inc. will post 2.31 EPS for the current year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.64%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Lazard’s payout ratio is currently 79.68%.

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.