Royce & Associates LP Lowers Stock Position in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)

Royce & Associates LP trimmed its position in shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ - Free Report) by 6.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 855,913 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 60,606 shares during the quarter. Royce & Associates LP owned 0.76% of Lazard worth $44,062,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in Lazard during the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Berbice Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Lazard during the 4th quarter worth approximately $46,000. Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Lazard in the 4th quarter worth approximately $53,000. AlphaQuest LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lazard by 85.8% in the 4th quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 1,137 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $59,000 after buying an additional 525 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Lazard in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $60,000. Institutional investors own 54.80% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LAZ has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on Lazard from $51.00 to $44.00 and set a "sell" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Lazard from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Lazard from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Lazard from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Lazard from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $54.17.

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Lazard Stock Performance

Shares of LAZ traded down $0.80 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $45.77. The company's stock had a trading volume of 876,895 shares, compared to its average volume of 882,253. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $50.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $51.69. Lazard, Inc. has a 52-week low of $35.56 and a 52-week 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. The company has a market cap of $5.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.21 and a beta of 1.41.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. On average, equities analysts expect that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 21st. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.37%. Lazard's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 75.19%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 35,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.64, for a total value of $1,877,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 188,448 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,108,350.72. This represents a 15.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 64,539 shares of Lazard stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.24, for a total value of $2,919,744.36. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 234,824 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,623,437.76. This represents a 21.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 189,078 shares of company stock worth $9,120,541 in the last quarter. 3.86% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.