Lazard Ltd (NYSE:LAZ – Get Rating) – Investment analysts at Seaport Res Ptn reduced their FY2022 EPS estimates for Lazard in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, October 13th. Seaport Res Ptn analyst J. Mitchell now forecasts that the asset manager will earn $4.05 per share for the year, down from their previous forecast of $4.30. The consensus estimate for Lazard’s current full-year earnings is $3.80 per share. Seaport Res Ptn also issued estimates for Lazard’s Q1 2023 earnings at $0.73 EPS and Q3 2023 earnings at $1.00 EPS.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on LAZ. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Lazard from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $40.00 to $30.00 in a report on Monday, July 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Lazard from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 4th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Lazard from $45.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded shares of Lazard from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $38.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 13th. Finally, StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Lazard in a research note on Wednesday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lazard currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.71.

Lazard Stock Up 4.7 %

Shares of NYSE LAZ opened at $32.75 on Friday. Lazard has a 12-month low of $30.20 and a 12-month high of $53.00. The company has a market capitalization of $3.69 billion, a PE ratio of 6.87 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.04, a current ratio of 1.70 and a quick ratio of 1.70. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $35.90 and its two-hundred day moving average is $34.72.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 28th. The asset manager reported $0.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.05. Lazard had a net margin of 16.85% and a return on equity of 56.01%. The company had revenue of $676.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $666.39 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.28 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 19th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 8th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 5th. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.93%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lazard

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of LAZ. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Lazard by 14.1% in the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,750,853 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $121,565,000 after acquiring an additional 462,677 shares in the last quarter. Ariel Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Lazard by 5.4% in the first quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 8,560,437 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $295,335,000 after acquiring an additional 439,866 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Lazard by 27.2% in the first quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,007,185 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $69,248,000 after acquiring an additional 429,669 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Lazard by 20.0% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,847,754 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $63,748,000 after acquiring an additional 307,614 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management increased its position in shares of Lazard by 21.9% in the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,514,950 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $52,266,000 after acquiring an additional 272,582 shares in the last quarter.

Lazard Company Profile

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Lazard Ltd, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a financial advisory and asset management firm in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Central and South America. It operates in two segments, Financial Advisory and Asset Management. The Financial Advisory segment offers various financial advisory services regarding mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, capital advisory, shareholder advisory, capital raising, sovereign advisory, and other strategic advisory matters.

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