Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) Position Raised by Soros Fund Management LLC

Soros Fund Management LLC raised its stake in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 48.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 115,700 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 38,000 shares during the quarter. Soros Fund Management LLC owned approximately 0.10% of Lazard worth $5,956,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LAZ. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in Lazard in the third quarter valued at $2,322,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Lazard by 10.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,250,049 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $113,357,000 after buying an additional 206,295 shares during the last quarter. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC lifted its stake in Lazard by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC now owns 45,549 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,345,000 after buying an additional 1,838 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of Lazard by 12.2% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Lazard during the fourth quarter valued at about $3,813,000. 54.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Lazard from $44.00 to $38.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Wolfe Research cut shares of Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Lazard in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Lazard from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $56.00 to $33.00 in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Lazard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.83.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.32, for a total transaction of $1,383,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 163,448 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,041,943.36. This trade represents a 13.27 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 64,539 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.56, for a total transaction of $2,940,396.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 170,285 shares in the company, valued at $7,758,184.60. This represents a 27.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 189,078 shares of company stock worth $9,120,541 in the last quarter. 3.86% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Lazard Price Performance

NYSE LAZ opened at $39.20 on Tuesday. 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, Inc. has a 1 year low of $31.97 and a 1 year high of $61.14. The company has a market cap of $4.42 billion, a PE ratio of 14.74 and a beta of 1.27. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $42.61 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $49.64.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 25th. The asset manager reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.27. Lazard had a net margin of 8.98% and a return on equity of 44.58%. The firm had revenue of $669.16 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $698.39 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.66 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. 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 will be paid on Friday, May 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 5th will be given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 5th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.10%. Lazard’s payout ratio is 69.69%.

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.