Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.08 EPS

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The asset manager reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.08, Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $765.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $678.57 million. Lazard had a positive return on equity of 16.43% and a negative net margin of 2.93%. Lazard’s quarterly revenue was up 41.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.26) earnings per share.

Lazard Price Performance

Shares of LAZ stock traded up $0.21 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $39.10. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 335,888 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,172,557. Lazard has a twelve month low of $25.82 and a twelve month high of $42.24. The business has a fifty day moving average of $39.31 and a 200-day moving average of $35.32. The stock has a market cap of $4.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -40.11 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.51.

Lazard Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 12th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 9th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.12%. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -206.18%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 75,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.35, for a total value of $2,951,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 227,448 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,950,078.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 3.86% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on LAZ. TheStreet upgraded Lazard from a “d+” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Monday, February 5th. UBS Group upped their target price on Lazard from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $58.00 target price on shares of Lazard in a report on Thursday, April 11th. StockNews.com upgraded Lazard from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Lazard from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $45.67.

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.