Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) Stock Position Lifted by Xponance Inc.

Xponance Inc. lifted its position in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 4.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,987 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 606 shares during the quarter. Xponance Inc.’s holdings in Lazard were worth $720,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in Lazard in the fourth quarter worth $41,000. Berbice Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Lazard in the 4th quarter valued at about $46,000. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Lazard during the 4th quarter valued at about $53,000. AlphaQuest LLC raised its stake in Lazard by 85.8% during the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 1,137 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $59,000 after acquiring an additional 525 shares during the period. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in Lazard in the fourth quarter worth about $60,000. 54.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Lazard Stock Up 2.5 %

Lazard stock opened at $47.06 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $50.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $51.66. The stock has a market cap of $5.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.69 and a beta of 1.41. Lazard, Inc. has a 52 week low of $35.56 and a 52 week high of $61.14. The company has a current ratio of 2.24, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.09. Lazard had a return on equity of 44.58% and a net margin of 8.98%. On average, analysts expect that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 21st. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.25%. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio is currently 75.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 64,539 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 170,285 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,758,184.60. This represents a 27.48 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 25,000 shares of Lazard stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was 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. The trade was a 13.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on LAZ. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Lazard from $63.00 to $56.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Lazard from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Lazard from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lazard currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $54.17.

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.