Lazard (LAZ) Competitors

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) and Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, earnings, valuation, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, community ranking, institutional ownership and profitability.

Is LAZ or SF a better dividend stock?

Lazard pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.5%. Stifel Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Lazard pays out 75.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Stifel Financial pays out 29.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Is LAZ or SF more profitable?

Stifel Financial has a net margin of 14.00% compared to Lazard's net margin of 8.98%. Lazard's return on equity of 44.58% beat Stifel Financial's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lazard	8.98%	44.58%	5.26%
Stifel Financial	14.00%	16.59%	2.04%

Do analysts recommend LAZ or SF?

Lazard presently has a consensus target price of $54.17, suggesting a potential upside of 20.80%. Stifel Financial has a consensus target price of $117.71, suggesting a potential upside of 21.23%. Given Stifel Financial's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Stifel Financial is more favorable than Lazard.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lazard	1 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
Stifel Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.25

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, LAZ or SF?

Stifel Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Lazard. Stifel Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lazard, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lazard	$3.09B	1.64	$279.91M	$2.66	16.86
Stifel Financial	$4.91B	2.05	$731.38M	$6.24	15.56

Does the media favor LAZ or SF?

In the previous week, Lazard had 2 more articles in the media than Stifel Financial. MarketBeat recorded 18 mentions for Lazard and 16 mentions for Stifel Financial. Stifel Financial's average media sentiment score of 1.19 beat Lazard's score of 0.29 indicating that Stifel Financial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Lazard	2 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	10 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Stifel Financial	11 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do insiders and institutionals believe in LAZ or SF?

54.8% of Lazard shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.0% of Stifel Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 3.9% of Lazard shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.6% of Stifel Financial shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor LAZ or SF?

Lazard received 345 more outperform votes than Stifel Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 63.89% of users gave Lazard an outperform vote while only 55.17% of users gave Stifel Financial an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Lazard	Outperform Votes 628 63.89%	Underperform Votes 355 36.11%
Stifel Financial	Outperform Votes 283 55.17%	Underperform Votes 230 44.83%

Which has more risk and volatility, LAZ or SF?

Lazard has a beta of 1.41, suggesting that its stock price is 41% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Stifel Financial has a beta of 1.08, suggesting that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Stifel Financial beats Lazard on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.