Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.50

Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 29th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be given a dividend of 0.50 per share by the asset manager on Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.82%.

Lazard has raised its dividend by an average of 2.1% per year over the last three years. Lazard has a dividend payout ratio of 42.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Lazard to earn $4.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 49.8%.

Lazard Stock Performance

NYSE:LAZ traded down $1.28 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $52.35. 1,265,240 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,020,074. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.86 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $52.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $50.76. 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.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The asset manager reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.41 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $646.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $644.22 million. Lazard had a return on equity of 42.20% and a net margin of 8.28%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 21.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.10 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Lazard will post 2.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on LAZ shares. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Lazard from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Lazard from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Lazard from $59.00 to $51.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Lazard from $51.00 to $44.00 and set a "sell" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on Lazard from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note 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 assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $53.50.

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.

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