New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 59,358 Shares of Lazard, Inc. $LAZ

New York State Common Retirement Fund trimmed its position in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 22.0% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 210,458 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 59,358 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Lazard were worth $10,098,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lazard by 57.2% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 918 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 334 shares during the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. acquired a new position in Lazard in the second quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Lazard by 170.8% in the second quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,771 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $85,000 after buying an additional 1,117 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in Lazard by 72.7% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,007 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $87,000 after acquiring an additional 845 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its holdings in Lazard by 12.5% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,259 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $98,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares during the period. 54.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Zacks Research downgraded Lazard from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $46.00 price objective on Lazard and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Lazard from $47.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 8th. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on Lazard in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. They set a “market perform” rating and a $56.00 target price for the company. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Lazard in a research note on Monday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.00.

Lazard Stock Performance

LAZ stock opened at $53.45 on Friday. Lazard, Inc. has a 1-year low of $31.97 and a 1-year high of $58.07. The company has a current ratio of 2.58, a quick ratio of 2.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.92. The firm has a market cap of $6.03 billion, a PE ratio of 21.13 and a beta of 1.40. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $49.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $50.50.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.17. Lazard had a return on equity of 35.02% and a net margin of 8.89%.The company had revenue of $770.76 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $739.91 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.38 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 3rd were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 3rd. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.7%. Lazard’s payout ratio is presently 79.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lazard

In other news, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 32,475 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.09, for a total value of $1,756,572.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 183,274 shares in the company, valued at $9,913,290.66. This represents a 15.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.95, for a total transaction of $2,847,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 227,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,979,759.25. This represents a 17.99% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 108,092 shares of company stock valued at $6,030,986. 3.86% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.