LAZARD Ltd. (LAZ)

Like mrindependent. I am following Bullishbabo who did not write a pitch. I view Lazard as an investment bank and asset management company that does not hav the volatile trading operations that dominate earnings at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. As such, the market is according Lazard an overly rich valuation. At 7.5 times book value and 39 times expected 2009 earnings, it will be easy for Lazard to disappoint.

Zacks Rank 3-Hold, Recommend Neutral, Industry Rank 43 / 217, Target 45.70, Avg target of 12 analysts 45.38

Following Bullishbabo who did not write a pitch. I view Lazard as an investment bank and asset management company that does not hav the volatile trading operations that dominate earnings at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. As such, the market is according Lazard an overly rich valuation. At 7.5 times book value and 39 times expected 2009 earnings, it will be easy for Lazard to disappoint.

boom,epex,wres,ico,vz,cpsi,psl,cksw

This company was individually screened to verify that during the boom years ('04-'08), their Balance Sheet expansion appeared excessive. The company operates within the FIRE (Financial Insurance Real Estate) sector of the economy which has been hot the past few decades, yet will run out of steam this coming decade. At some point or another, something's gotta give with this company. Income will start collapsing due to debt levels, and/or dividends will be slashed or removed, and/or significant losses will be realized. The chances of this being a growth company or having significant growth is heavily muted due to its dividend paying obligations at the current levels of today.
This company was personally found after using a screener.

initial google screen:
Market cap over 400M
Dividend yield over 1%
1 Year price change better than -35%
price to book 0.9 or higher
total debt/equity (recent qtr) greater than 50%
13 week price change greater than 17%

After individually screening for companies appearing overvalued due to Balance sheet expansion, it yielded the following stocks to short:
EVR NTRS PRSP JEF LAZ FIS RJF

For the heavy shorting within the FIRE sector as part of the above picks, I will offset them with the following longs relating to FIRE companies:
LONG on BX CVBF UTR

This will be the primary focus of this profile, to seek & obtain alpha from long/short dividend opportunities across various industries.
- ALPHADividend

Ridiculous P/E and loads of debt. This is a train wreck.

During the last recession (2001), their bankruptcy advising branch grew 6-fold. This is a much greater recession than that one, so I expect their revenue from advising to increase substantially. They have already been hired by many big companies that have declared or are thinking about declaring bankruptcy this year (including charter, tribune, blockbuster) so they obviously have a huge pipeline of revenue.

In my opinion one of the very very few banks that are well positioned right now. Best of breed in a depressed sector spells great returns in the future

Wasserstein. One of the all-time brilliant people on Wall St. That is saying a lot. Mergers and Acquisitions is about to kick back into gear.

Still getting battered by the credit crisis

lazard is a powerhouse but with a sudden hault to and mergers or aquisitons lazard will be on the front line to suffer fees

goldman sachs conviction buy list - just adding to watch it.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2007/09/20/what-has-lazard-been-up-to.aspx

got lazy and hit outperform prob a little early. financials will continue to take a hti and really shouldnt be bought yet. although lazard has taken an unfair hit on what was a "weak" second quarter (although it had already indicated that it would be as its $ is back heavy for this year) looking forward to next year earnings the company is undervalued, and by the time financials are done taking there hit, which again i dont actually think is yet, should be well positioned for a great climb

elite french based ibank...how can they lose now if they never have before?

Small investing firm that has overexeeded the earning estimates in past five or six quaters. So I see the path continue. Money is moving in financial markets because of Asia emerge.

Those firms in the financial services industry dedicated to investment banking and asset management have done quite well over the last two years, where an incredible number of deals have been done, and institutional investors have made phenomenal returns. Lazard, Ltd. has the Wall Street pedigree to earn more than its share of deals should recent activity continue into what most experts believe will be another record year for investment banks. Lazard's accolades from 2005 include:
In 2005, Lazard advised on five of the nine

Wasserstein's leadership, recent mgmt. shakeup and mission to change the LAZ's corp. culture should help this company make a strong come back in the long term.

M&A trend