Lazard, Inc. (LAZ) To Go Ex-Dividend on May 3rd

Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 24th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, May 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share by the asset manager on Friday, May 17th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.13%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd.

Lazard has increased its dividend payment by an average of 2.1% annually over the last three years. Lazard has a dividend payout ratio of 47.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Lazard to earn $4.44 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 45.0%.

Lazard Stock Up 0.2 %

NYSE LAZ traded up $0.09 during trading on Friday, hitting $38.98. 798,552 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,178,625. The company has a market capitalization of $4.40 billion, a P/E ratio of -40.07 and a beta of 1.46. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $39.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $35.32. Lazard has a 12 month low of $25.82 and a 12 month high of $42.24. 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 (NYSE:LAZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The asset manager reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $765.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $678.57 million. Lazard had a negative net margin of 2.93% and a positive return on equity of 16.43%. Lazard’s revenue for the quarter was up 41.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.26) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Lazard will post 3.22 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Insider Activity

In other Lazard news, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 75,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.35, for a total transaction of $2,951,250.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 3.86% of the stock is 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.