LAZ vs. SF, EVR, BGC, PIPR, OPY, FBRC, MS, GS, SCHW, and RJF
Should you be buying Lazard stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Lazard include Stifel Financial (SF), Evercore (EVR), BGC Group (BGC), Piper Sandler Companies (PIPR), Oppenheimer (OPY), FBR & Co. (FBRC), Morgan Stanley (MS), The Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Charles Schwab (SCHW), and Raymond James (RJF). These companies are all part of the "investment banking & brokerage" industry.
Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) and Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, media sentiment, community ranking, dividends, risk and profitability.
Lazard pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.9%. Stifel Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Lazard pays out -571.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Stifel Financial pays out 38.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Lazard is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Stifel Financial has a net margin of 11.34% compared to Lazard's net margin of -0.63%. Lazard's return on equity of 37.27% beat Stifel Financial's return on equity.
Lazard received 349 more outperform votes than Stifel Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.61% of users gave Lazard an outperform vote while only 55.56% of users gave Stifel Financial an outperform vote.
Lazard has a beta of 1.46, indicating that its share price is 46% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Stifel Financial has a beta of 1.14, indicating that its share price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, Stifel Financial had 3 more articles in the media than Lazard. MarketBeat recorded 10 mentions for Stifel Financial and 7 mentions for Lazard. Stifel Financial's average media sentiment score of 0.53 beat Lazard's score of 0.46 indicating that Stifel Financial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Lazard presently has a consensus target price of $45.67, suggesting a potential upside of 12.90%. Stifel Financial has a consensus target price of $84.50, suggesting a potential upside of 7.12%. Given Lazard's higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Lazard is more favorable than Stifel Financial.
Stifel Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Lazard. Lazard is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Stifel Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
54.8% of Lazard shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.0% of Stifel Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 3.1% of Lazard shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.6% of Stifel Financial shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Summary
Stifel Financial beats Lazard on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding LAZ and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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