Absolute Gestao de Investimentos Ltda. Buys Shares of 12,500 Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)

Absolute Gestao de Investimentos Ltda. purchased a new position in shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 12,500 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $644,000. Lazard comprises approximately 0.3% of Absolute Gestao de Investimentos Ltda.’s holdings, making the stock its 26th largest holding.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in shares of Lazard in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $947,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Lazard by 128.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 678,617 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $34,935,000 after acquiring an additional 381,546 shares in the last quarter. Monument Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Lazard in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,809,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Lazard by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,862,389 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $95,876,000 after purchasing an additional 90,152 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wealthfront Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Lazard in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,735,000. 54.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on LAZ. Morgan Stanley lowered Lazard from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $56.00 to $33.00 in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Lazard from $44.00 to $38.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on Lazard from $51.00 to $44.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Lazard from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Wolfe Research cut shares of Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.83.

Lazard Stock Up 4.7 %

Shares of LAZ opened at $41.29 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $41.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $49.32. Lazard, Inc. has a 12 month low of $31.97 and a 12 month high of $61.14. The company has a market capitalization of $4.66 billion, a PE ratio of 15.52 and a beta of 1.27. 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 quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 25th. The asset manager reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.27. The company had revenue of $669.16 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $698.39 million. Lazard had a net margin of 8.98% and a return on equity of 44.58%. Lazard’s revenue for the quarter was down 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.66 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 EPS for the current year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 5th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.84%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 5th. Lazard’s payout ratio is 69.69%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lazard

In related news, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 25,000 shares of Lazard stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $9,041,943.36. The trade was a 13.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 64,539 shares of Lazard stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.24, for a total transaction of $2,919,744.36. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 234,824 shares in the company, valued at $10,623,437.76. This represents a 21.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 189,078 shares of company stock valued at $9,120,541. Corporate insiders own 3.86% of the company’s stock.

Lazard Company 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.