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

Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 29th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share by the asset manager on Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 10th.

Lazard has increased its dividend by an average of 2.1% per year over the last three years. Lazard has a dividend payout ratio of 42.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Lazard to earn $5.06 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 39.5%.

Lazard Price Performance

Shares of LAZ opened at $53.24 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. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.00 billion, a PE ratio of 20.02 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $52.43 and a 200-day moving average price of $51.11. Lazard has a fifty-two week low of $35.56 and a fifty-two week high of $61.14.

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) last announced its 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 return on equity of 44.58% and a net margin of 8.98%. Equities analysts predict that Lazard will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on LAZ. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Lazard from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Lazard from $51.00 to $44.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com upgraded Lazard from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group upped their price target on Lazard from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded Lazard from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Lazard currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.33.

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.