Lazard, Inc. $LAZ Shares Sold by Handelsbanken Fonder AB

by · The Markets Daily

Handelsbanken Fonder AB trimmed its holdings in shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ – Free Report) by 21.9% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 18,500 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 5,200 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Lazard were worth $888,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position 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. Ariel Investments LLC increased its stake in Lazard by 0.4% in the first 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 raised its holdings in Lazard by 141.6% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,263,046 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $97,990,000 after purchasing an additional 1,326,370 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position 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 worth $73,214,000 after buying an additional 406,232 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Lazard by 6.9% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,283,279 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $55,566,000 after buying an additional 82,878 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on LAZ shares. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on shares of Lazard in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $56.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Lazard from $47.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Lazard in a research report on Tuesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on Lazard from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Lazard from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Three 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lazard currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.00.

View Our Latest Report on LAZ

Insider Transactions at Lazard

In related news, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 32,475 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.09, for a total transaction of $1,756,572.75. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 183,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,913,290.66. This trade represents a 15.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.95, for a total transaction of $2,847,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 227,915 shares in the company, valued at $12,979,759.25. This represents a 17.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 108,092 shares of company stock worth $6,030,986 over the last 90 days. 3.86% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Lazard Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:LAZ opened at $50.50 on Friday. Lazard, Inc. has a one year low of $31.97 and a one year high of $58.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.96 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $50.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $50.33. 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 (NYSE:LAZ – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $770.76 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%.The business’s revenue was down 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.38 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 EPS for the current year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 3rd. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.0%. Lazard’s payout ratio is presently 79.05%.

About Lazard

(Free Report)

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.

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