Morgan Stanley Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) Stock Price

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) had its target price decreased by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley from $63.00 to $56.00 in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the asset manager’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target indicates a potential upside of 24.49% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on LAZ. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Lazard from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Lazard from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Lazard from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Lazard from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Wolfe Research cut shares of Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $54.17.

Lazard Trading Up 0.1 %

LAZ opened at $44.98 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.24, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.07 billion, a PE ratio of 16.91 and a beta of 1.41. Lazard has a 1-year low of $35.56 and a 1-year high of $61.14. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $50.74 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $51.75.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 8.98% and a return on equity of 44.58%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Lazard will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 25,000 shares of the company’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 value of $1,383,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 163,448 shares in the company, valued at $9,041,943.36. This represents a 13.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 3.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Ascent Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lazard by 9.6% in the fourth quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 10,504 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $541,000 after buying an additional 922 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Lazard by 42.1% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 17,454 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $899,000 after buying an additional 5,170 shares during the period. Castleark Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lazard by 19.0% in the fourth quarter. Castleark Management LLC now owns 133,080 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,851,000 after buying an additional 21,250 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lazard by 28.6% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 219,844 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $11,318,000 after buying an additional 48,956 shares during the period. Finally, State of Wyoming boosted its holdings in shares of Lazard by 133.3% in the fourth quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 4,993 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $257,000 after buying an additional 2,853 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

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.