Hilltop National Bank Takes Position in Lazard, Inc. $LAZ

Hilltop National Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 7,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $357,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Lazard by 2,324.4% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,099,179 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $264,096,000 after acquiring an additional 5,847,608 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its stake in shares of Lazard by 141.6% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,263,046 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $97,990,000 after acquiring an additional 1,326,370 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Lazard by 42.2% during the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,644,323 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $71,199,000 after acquiring an additional 487,574 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of Lazard by 31.6% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,690,943 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $73,214,000 after buying an additional 406,232 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Lazard during the first quarter valued at $10,998,000. 54.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Lazard

In related news, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.95, for a total transaction of $2,847,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 227,915 shares in the company, valued at $12,979,759.25. The trade was a 17.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 32,475 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.09, for a total value of $1,756,572.75. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 183,274 shares in the company, valued at $9,913,290.66. This represents a 15.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 108,092 shares of company stock worth $6,030,986 over the last three months. Company insiders own 3.86% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on LAZ shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Lazard from $38.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. JMP Securities set a $60.00 price target on Lazard and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on Lazard in a research report on Friday. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $56.00 price target for the company. Zacks Research cut Lazard from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Lazard from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $60.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Monday, August 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $55.14.

Lazard Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of LAZ opened at $51.71 on Friday. Lazard, Inc. has a 12-month low of $31.97 and a 12-month high of $61.14. The company has a quick ratio of 2.53, a current ratio of 2.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.83 and a beta of 1.37. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $54.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $47.66.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.14. Lazard had a return on equity of 34.33% and a net margin of 9.96%.The firm had revenue of $796.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $674.13 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.52 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. Lazard’s payout ratio is currently 68.97%.

Lazard 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.