Dark Forest Capital Management LP Sells 16,643 Shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)

Dark Forest Capital Management LP cut its stake in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 40.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 24,436 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 16,643 shares during the period. Dark Forest Capital Management LP’s holdings in Lazard were worth $1,258,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. MML Investors Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Lazard in the 3rd quarter valued at $296,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in Lazard during the third quarter valued at $2,322,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Lazard by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,250,049 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $113,357,000 after acquiring an additional 206,295 shares during the period. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC raised its position in shares of Lazard by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC now owns 45,549 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,345,000 after acquiring an additional 1,838 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its stake in shares of Lazard by 12.2% in the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 6,672 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $343,000 after purchasing an additional 728 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LAZ has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research cut Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Lazard from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. JMP Securities dropped their target price on shares of Lazard from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Lazard from $44.00 to $38.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Lazard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lazard has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.83.

Lazard Stock Performance

Shares of LAZ stock opened at $36.40 on Wednesday. Lazard, Inc. has a 12 month low of $31.97 and a 12 month high of $61.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.10 billion, a PE ratio of 13.68 and a beta of 1.27. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $43.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $49.94. The company has a current ratio of 2.24, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.09. Lazard had a net margin of 8.98% and a return on equity of 44.58%. Analysts forecast that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 21st. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.49%. Lazard’s payout ratio is 75.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Lazard news, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.32, for a total value of $1,383,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 163,448 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,041,943.36. This represents a 13.27 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 64,539 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.24, for a total transaction of $2,919,744.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 234,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,623,437.76. This trade represents a 21.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 189,078 shares of company stock worth $9,120,541. 3.86% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.