Principal Financial Group Inc. Acquires 206,295 Shares of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ)

Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,250,049 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 206,295 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Lazard were worth $113,357,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of LAZ. Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Lazard by 3.3% in the second quarter. Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd now owns 18,392 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $702,000 after acquiring an additional 589 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its stake in Lazard by 12.2% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 5,413 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $273,000 after purchasing an additional 589 shares during the last quarter. Great Lakes Retirement Inc. lifted its stake in Lazard by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Great Lakes Retirement Inc. now owns 18,646 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $939,000 after purchasing an additional 624 shares during the last quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. boosted its position in Lazard by 1,125.0% in the second quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 735 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 675 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Lazard by 1.8% during the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 40,425 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,028,000 after buying an additional 728 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 54.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on LAZ. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $65.00 to $57.00 in a report on Friday. StockNews.com lowered Lazard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. JMP Securities upped their price objective on Lazard from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of Lazard in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $51.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Lazard from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $60.00 to $63.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Lazard presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $52.29.

Lazard Stock Performance

NYSE:LAZ opened at $52.04 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.24 and a current ratio of 2.24. Lazard, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $34.25 and a fifty-two week high of $61.14. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $54.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $48.21. The company has a market capitalization of $5.87 billion, a PE ratio of 20.73 and a beta of 1.38.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The asset manager reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.41 by ($0.03). Lazard had a return on equity of 42.20% and a net margin of 8.28%. The firm had revenue of $646.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $644.22 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.10 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 21.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Lazard, Inc. will post 2.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Lazard Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th were given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.84%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Lazard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 79.68%.

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.