Norges Bank Makes New Investment in Lazard, Inc. $LAZ

Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 1,386,969 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $66,547,000.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Lazard by 12.5% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,259 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $98,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp raised its stake in Lazard by 1.2% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 25,191 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,209,000 after purchasing an additional 302 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Lazard by 57.2% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 918 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 334 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lazard by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 41,859 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,812,000 after purchasing an additional 352 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC grew its stake in shares of Lazard by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC now owns 46,592 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,235,000 after buying an additional 517 shares during the period. 54.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Lazard

In other Lazard news, CAO Michael Gathy sold 617 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.37, for a total value of $34,163.29. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, 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 transaction 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 approximately $9,913,290.66. The trade was a 15.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 108,092 shares of company stock valued at $6,030,986. Corporate insiders own 3.86% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Lazard from $47.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 8th. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on Lazard in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. They set a “market perform” rating and a $56.00 price target for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $46.00 price objective on Lazard and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Lazard in a report on Monday. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of Lazard from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $55.00.

Lazard Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of LAZ opened at $53.45 on Friday. Lazard, Inc. has a 12 month low of $31.97 and a 12 month high of $58.07. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $49.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $50.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 2.58 and a quick ratio of 2.58. The stock has a market cap of $6.03 billion, a PE ratio of 21.13 and a beta of 1.40.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $770.76 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $739.91 million. Lazard had a return on equity of 35.02% and a net margin of 8.89%.The company’s revenue was down 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.38 EPS. Equities analysts forecast 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 was paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 3rd. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.7%. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio is 79.05%.

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.