Lesa Sroufe & Co Sells 1,840 Shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)

Lesa Sroufe & Co cut its stake in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 3.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 52,641 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,840 shares during the period. Lazard accounts for about 1.9% of Lesa Sroufe & Co’s holdings, making the stock its 25th largest position. Lesa Sroufe & Co’s holdings in Lazard were worth $1,832,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in LAZ. Larson Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Lazard in the third quarter worth about $27,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Lazard in the third quarter worth about $60,000. Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC bought a new position in shares of Lazard in the third quarter worth about $102,000. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Lazard in the third quarter worth about $134,000. Finally, Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. bought a new position in shares of Lazard in the third quarter worth about $210,000. 54.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on LAZ shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $51.00 price objective on shares of Lazard in a research note on Monday, January 29th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Lazard from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $58.00 price objective on shares of Lazard in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. TheStreet raised shares of Lazard from a “d+” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Lazard from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.00.

Lazard Stock Up 3.0 %

NYSE:LAZ opened at $39.65 on Wednesday. Lazard, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.82 and a fifty-two week high of $42.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.47 billion, a P/E ratio of -40.87 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.51, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a current ratio of 1.62. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.23.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The asset manager reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.31. Lazard had a negative net margin of 2.93% and a positive return on equity of 16.43%. The business had revenue of $825.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $666.56 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.69 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Lazard, Inc. will post 3.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, February 12th were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 9th. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -206.18%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 75,000 shares of Lazard stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.35, for a total value of $2,951,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 227,448 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,950,078.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 3.14% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Lazard Company 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.