Great Lakes Retirement Inc. Purchases 335 Shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)

Great Lakes Retirement Inc. lifted its position in shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,981 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 335 shares during the quarter. Great Lakes Retirement Inc.’s holdings in Lazard were worth $977,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in LAZ. Berbice Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Lazard during the fourth quarter worth $46,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Lazard during the third quarter worth $50,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Lazard during the fourth quarter worth $60,000. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Lazard by 209.0% during the fourth quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,267 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 857 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Spire Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Lazard during the fourth quarter worth $69,000. 54.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on LAZ. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Lazard from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Lazard from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Lazard from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” 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. Finally, JMP Securities raised their price objective on shares of Lazard from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. One investment 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.33.

Lazard Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of LAZ stock opened at $53.56 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.24, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72. Lazard, Inc. has a 1 year low of $35.56 and a 1 year high of $61.14. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $52.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $51.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.14 and a beta of 1.41.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 predict that Lazard, Inc. will post 4.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 10th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.73%. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio is presently 75.19%.

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.