Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) Shares Down 4% – Time to Sell?

Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)’s share price was down 4% on Friday . The stock traded as low as $48.52 and last traded at $48.72. Approximately 482,135 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 11% from the average daily volume of 538,812 shares. The stock had previously closed at $50.74.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LAZ has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JMP Securities raised their price objective on Lazard from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $65.00 to $57.00 in a research report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com downgraded Lazard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Wolfe Research cut shares of Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Lazard from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $54.00.

Lazard Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $5.58 billion, a PE ratio of 19.71 and a beta of 1.40. The business has a 50 day moving average of $54.40 and a 200 day moving average of $49.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 2.24 and a quick ratio of 2.24.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The asset manager reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by ($0.03). Lazard had a net margin of 8.28% and a return on equity of 42.20%. The company had revenue of $646.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $644.22 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.10 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Lazard, Inc. will post 2.18 EPS for the current year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.04%. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 79.68%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LAZ. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Lazard by 10.1% in the third 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Lazard by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,948,167 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $98,149,000 after acquiring an additional 55,469 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Lazard by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,813,553 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $91,392,000 after acquiring an additional 15,151 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Lazard by 2.2% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,772,237 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $89,285,000 after acquiring an additional 37,681 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Claro Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Lazard by 10,306.7% in the third quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 1,235,793 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $62,259,000 after purchasing an additional 1,223,918 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.