Amica Mutual Insurance Co. Raises Position in Lazard, Inc. $LAZ

Amica Mutual Insurance Co. lifted its position in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ – Free Report) by 48.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 120,707 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchaseing an additional 39,263 shares during the period. Amica Mutual Insurance Co. owned about 0.11% of Lazard worth $5,791,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently built alters to their positions in LAZ. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Lazard by 2,324.4% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,099,179 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $264,096,000 after acquiring an additional 5,847,608 shares during the last quarter. Ariel Investments LLC boosted its stake in Lazard by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 5,619,280 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $243,315,000 after purchasing an additional 21,065 shares during the last quarter. Amundi increased its holdings in shares of Lazard by 141.6% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,263,046 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $97,990,000 after purchasing an additional 1,326,370 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Lazard by 31.6% in the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,690,943 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $73,214,000 after purchasing an additional 406,232 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Lazard by 42.2% in the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,644,323 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $71,199,000 after purchasing an additional 487,574 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LAZ has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Lazard from $47.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $46.00 price tarobtain on shares of Lazard and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. JMP Securities set a $60.00 price tarobtain on shares of Lazard and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 14th. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on shares of Lazard in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. They set a “market perform” rating and a $56.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their tarobtain price on shares of Lazard from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average tarobtain price of $55.00.

Get Our Latest Report on LAZ

Insider Transactions at Lazard

In other news, CAO Michael Gathy sold 617 shares of Lazard stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.37, for a total transaction of $34,163.29. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Peter Richard Orszag sold 32,475 shares of the business’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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 183,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,913,290.66. This trade represents a 15.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 108,092 shares of company stock valued at $6,030,986 over the last quarter. 3.86% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Lazard Trading Up 1.9%

Shares of Lazard stock opened at $50.50 on Friday. Lazard, Inc. has a 1-year low of $31.97 and a 1-year high of $60.35. The company’s fifty day simple relocating average is $52.16 and its 200-day simple relocating average is $49.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 2.58 and a quick ratio of 2.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.69 billion, a PE ratio of 19.96 and a beta of 1.38.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.56 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 firm had revenue of $782.43 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $739.91 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.38 EPS. Lazard’s revenue was down 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Lazard Dividfinish Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividfinish, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd will be paid a $0.50 dividfinish. The ex-dividfinish date of this dividfinish is Monday, November 3rd. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividfinish and a dividfinish yield of 4.0%. Lazard’s dividfinish payout ratio (DPR) is 79.05%.

Lazard Company Profile

(Free Report)

Lazard, Inc, toobtainher 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.