Morgan Stanley Increases Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) Price Target to $63.00

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ - Get Free Report) had its price target lifted by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley from $60.00 to $63.00 in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an "equal weight" rating on the asset manager's stock. Morgan Stanley's price objective would suggest a potential upside of 20.70% from the stock's current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on LAZ. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of Lazard from $51.00 to $44.00 and set a "sell" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on Lazard from $57.00 to $52.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. StockNews.com cut shares of Lazard from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Lazard from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, JMP Securities upped 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $55.33.

Lazard Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of LAZ stock traded down $0.80 on Friday, hitting $52.20. 770,122 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,073,330. Lazard has a fifty-two week low of $35.56 and a fifty-two week high of $61.14. The company has a current ratio of 2.24, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72. The business has a 50-day moving average of $52.82 and a 200 day moving average of $50.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.62 and a beta of 1.41.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.09. Lazard had a return on equity of 44.58% and a net margin of 8.98%. Equities analysts anticipate that Lazard will post 3.9 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lazard

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Lazard by 19.3% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 481,406 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $18,370,000 after acquiring an additional 77,974 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. raised its stake in Lazard by 12.7% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 72,003 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $2,749,000 after purchasing an additional 8,115 shares in the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC bought a new stake in Lazard during the second quarter worth about $360,000. Algert Global LLC acquired a new stake in Lazard during the second quarter worth about $336,000. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Lazard in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $299,000. 54.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.