Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) Given New $52.00 Price Target at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) had its price objective cut by investment analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $57.00 to $52.00 in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “market perform” rating on the asset manager’s stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ price objective would indicate a potential upside of 13.07% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on LAZ. JMP Securities raised their price target on shares of Lazard from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley lowered Lazard from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $60.00 to $63.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Wolfe Research downgraded Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. StockNews.com cut Lazard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Lazard from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Lazard presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $53.17.

Lazard Price Performance

Shares of NYSE LAZ traded down $1.31 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $45.99. 394,108 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 907,075. The company has a market cap of $5.19 billion, a PE ratio of 18.32 and a beta of 1.40. Lazard has a twelve month low of $35.56 and a twelve month high of $61.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 2.24 and a quick ratio of 2.24. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $54.16 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $49.76.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The asset manager reported $0.38 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $646.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $644.22 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.10 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Lazard will post 2.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Richardson Financial Services Inc. lifted its stake in Lazard by 1,125.0% during the 2nd quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 735 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 675 shares in the last quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Lazard during the third quarter valued at about $50,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new position in Lazard during the second quarter worth about $87,000. My Legacy Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Lazard in the 3rd quarter worth about $215,000. Finally, King Wealth Management Group bought a new position in shares of Lazard during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $227,000. Institutional investors 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.