Calton & Associates Inc. Acquires New Stake in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)

Calton & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 8,704 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $439,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Lazard by 1.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,678,365 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $447,103,000 after acquiring an additional 152,857 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Lazard by 4.1% during the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,043,754 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $78,031,000 after acquiring an additional 79,889 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC acquired a new position in shares of Lazard during the first quarter valued at approximately $65,650,000. Claro Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Lazard by 10,306.7% during the third quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 1,235,793 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $62,259,000 after buying an additional 1,223,918 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its holdings in Lazard by 7.3% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 651,521 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $24,875,000 after buying an additional 44,151 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on LAZ shares. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Lazard from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and set a $56.00 price target (up previously from $49.00) on shares of Lazard in a report on Friday, July 26th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Lazard from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. JMP Securities raised their price target on shares of Lazard from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Lazard from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $51.14.

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman Kenneth M. Jacobs sold 1,999 shares of Lazard stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total transaction of $99,969.99. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 1,727,723 shares in the company, valued at approximately $86,403,427.23. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Lazard news, Chairman Kenneth M. Jacobs sold 1,999 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total value of $99,969.99. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 1,727,723 shares in the company, valued at $86,403,427.23. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Kenneth M. Jacobs sold 86,728 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.02, for a total transaction of $4,338,134.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 1,640,995 shares in the company, valued at approximately $82,082,569.90. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 176,497 shares of company stock worth $8,658,086. Corporate insiders own 3.86% of the company’s stock.

Lazard Stock Performance

NYSE LAZ traded down $0.35 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $52.29. The company had a trading volume of 11,195 shares, compared to its average volume of 942,856. The company has a quick ratio of 1.94, a current ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.60. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $49.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $43.63. Lazard, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.82 and a fifty-two week high of $54.72. The stock has a market cap of $5.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -150.40 and a beta of 1.39.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The asset manager reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.17. Lazard had a net margin of 5.50% and a return on equity of 41.78%. The business had revenue of $685.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $625.40 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.24 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Lazard, Inc. will post 2.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 5th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 5th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.82%. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -571.43%.

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.