Lazard's (LAZ) January AUM Declines 1.1% on Net Outflows
Lazard, Inc. LAZ announced a preliminary asset under management (AUM) balance of $243.8 billion for January 2024. This reflects a 1.1 % decline from $246.7 billion as of Dec 31, 2023.
The drop in January AUM was primarily due to foreign exchange depreciation of $2.3 billion and net outflows of $2.1 billion, whereas market appreciation of $1.6 billion softened the impact.
Lazard’s equity AUM dropped 0.9% from the prior month to $1.88 billion. Fixed-income AUM of $47.3 billion fell 1.5% sequentially. Also, other assets AUM decreased 3.8% to $8.08 billion.
The company’s investment strategies, diversified AUM, a well-laddered debt maturity profile and impressive cost-control efforts are likely to support its financials. However, increased reliance on advisory fee income in terms of revenues makes it susceptible to subdued market activity.
Over the past six months, shares of Lazard have gained 12.1% compared with the industry’s rally of 14.2%.
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LAZ currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Competitive Landscape
Cohen & Steers, Inc. CNS reported preliminary AUM of $79.3 billion as of Jan 31, 2024, which reflects a fall of 4.6% from the prior-month level. The decline was due to a net outflow of $1.5 billion, market depreciation of $2.2 billion and distributions of $157 million.
CNS recorded total institutional accounts of $32 billion at the end of January 2024, declining 8.6% from the December 2023-end level. Of the total institutional accounts, $18 billion were advisory accounts, while the rest were sub-advisory.
Victory Capital Holdings, Inc. VCTR reported AUM of $165.5 billion as of Jan 31, 2024, which reflects a decline of 0.7% from the prior month level.
By asset classes, at the end of January, VCTR’s U.S. Mid Cap Equity AUM witnessed a decline of 2% from the December level to $29.98 billion. The U.S. Small Cap Equity AUM of $15.25 billion experienced a more pronounced dip of 4.4%. Conversely, the U.S. Large Cap Equity AUM experienced a modest uptick of 1.3% to $12.8 billion. The Global/Non-U.S. Equity AUM saw a reduction of 1.7%, with AUM landing at $16.49 billion.
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