Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Downgrades Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) to Market Perform

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) was downgraded by stock analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. They presently have a $57.00 target price on the asset manager’s stock, down from their prior target price of $65.00. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ price objective would indicate a potential upside of 9.53% from the company’s previous close.

LAZ has been the subject of several other reports. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on Lazard in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $51.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Lazard from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $60.00 to $63.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Lazard from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. JMP Securities upped their price target on shares of Lazard from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Lazard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Lazard has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $52.29.

Lazard Stock Performance

Shares of LAZ opened at $52.04 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $5.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.73 and a beta of 1.38. The company’s fifty day moving average is $54.60 and its 200-day moving average is $48.28. The company has a quick ratio of 2.24, a current ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72. Lazard has a 12 month low of $34.25 and a 12 month high of $61.14.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The asset manager reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.41 by ($0.03). Lazard had a return on equity of 42.20% and a net margin of 8.28%. The business had revenue of $646.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $644.22 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.10 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 21.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Lazard will post 2.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lazard

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Lazard by 10.1% during 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 purchasing an additional 206,295 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Lazard by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,948,167 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $98,149,000 after buying an additional 55,469 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Lazard by 0.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,813,553 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $91,392,000 after acquiring an additional 15,151 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Lazard by 2.2% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,772,237 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $89,285,000 after acquiring an additional 37,681 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Claro Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Lazard by 10,306.7% during the third quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 1,235,793 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $62,259,000 after acquiring an additional 1,223,918 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

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.