Lazard, Inc. $LAZ Shares Purchased by Freemont Management S.A.

Freemont Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 30.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 102,800 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 24,100 shares during the quarter. Freemont Management S.A. owned about 0.09% of Lazard worth $4,932,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of LAZ. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Lazard by 2,324.4% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,099,179 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $264,096,000 after purchasing an additional 5,847,608 shares during the period. Ariel Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lazard by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 5,619,280 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $243,315,000 after purchasing an additional 21,065 shares during the last quarter. Amundi boosted its holdings in shares of Lazard by 141.6% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,263,046 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $97,990,000 after purchasing an additional 1,326,370 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of Lazard by 31.6% during the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,690,943 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $73,214,000 after buying an additional 406,232 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 487,574 shares during the last quarter. 54.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on LAZ. JMP Securities set a $60.00 target price on Lazard and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 14th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Lazard in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on Lazard in a report on Friday, October 3rd. They set a “market perform” rating and a $56.00 target price for the company. Citigroup reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Lazard in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Lazard from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $55.00.

Insider Activity at Lazard

In other Lazard news, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 32,475 shares of the company’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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 183,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,913,290.66. This represents a 15.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Michael Gathy sold 617 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.37, for a total value of $34,163.29. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 108,092 shares of company stock valued at $6,030,986. Corporate insiders own 2.26% of the company’s stock.

Lazard Price Performance

LAZ stock opened at $50.50 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 2.53 and a current ratio of 2.58. Lazard, Inc. has a 1 year low of $31.97 and a 1 year high of $60.35. The firm has a market cap of $5.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.96 and a beta of 1.38. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $52.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $49.39.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $782.43 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $739.91 million. Lazard had a return on equity of 35.02% and a net margin of 8.89%.Lazard’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.38 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 3rd. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.0%. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio is 79.05%.

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.