Epoch Investment Partners Inc. Sells 12,689 Shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)

Epoch Investment Partners Inc. reduced its stake in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ - Free Report) by 0.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,831,689 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 12,689 shares during the quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. owned about 1.62% of Lazard worth $94,295,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. purchased a new position in Lazard in the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of Lazard during the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Berbice Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Lazard during the 4th quarter valued at about $46,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its position in Lazard by 54.3% in the 4th quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 977 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $50,000 after buying an additional 344 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Lazard in the fourth quarter worth approximately $53,000. 54.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 25,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.32, for a total value of $1,383,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 163,448 shares in the company, valued at $9,041,943.36. This represents a 13.27 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 64,539 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.56, for a total value of $2,940,396.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 170,285 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,758,184.60. This represents a 27.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 189,078 shares of company stock valued at $9,120,541. Company insiders own 3.86% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on LAZ shares. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Lazard from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Lazard from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. 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. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Lazard from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $46.83.

Lazard Trading Down 3.0 %

LAZ stock traded down $1.07 during trading on Monday, reaching $34.47. The company had a trading volume of 658,111 shares, compared to its average volume of 939,305. Lazard, Inc. has a 52 week low of $31.97 and a 52 week high of $61.14. The business has a 50 day moving average of $44.24 and a 200 day moving average of $50.03. 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 company has a market cap of $3.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.96 and a beta of 1.27.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.09. Lazard had a net margin of 8.98% and a return on equity of 44.58%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.80%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. Lazard's payout ratio is presently 75.19%.

Lazard 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.