Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) Announces $0.50 Quarterly Dividend

Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, April 26th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders 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 yield of 5.13%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd.

Lazard has increased its dividend by an average of 2.1% annually over the last three years. Lazard has a payout ratio of 47.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE:LAZ traded up $0.10 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $38.99. The company had a trading volume of 798,402 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,178,624. The company has a current ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.51. The company has a 50-day moving average of $39.31 and a 200 day moving average of $35.32. The company has a market cap of $4.40 billion, a P/E ratio of -40.07 and a beta of 1.46. Lazard has a 1 year low of $25.82 and a 1 year high of $42.24.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The asset manager reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.08. Lazard had a positive return on equity of 16.43% and a negative net margin of 2.93%. The business had revenue of $765.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $678.57 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.26) EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 41.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Lazard will post 3.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Evan L. Russo sold 75,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.35, for a total transaction of $2,951,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 227,448 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,950,078.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 3.86% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on LAZ. Wolfe Research raised Lazard from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $58.00 price target on shares of Lazard in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $49.00 price target (down previously from $51.00) on shares of Lazard in a research report on Friday. UBS Group increased their price target on Lazard from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, TheStreet raised Lazard from a “d+” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $45.67.

About Lazard

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.