New York Times: Lazard Part of the 'Big Boys Camp

Lazard LAZ is a New York City based boutique broker dealer that provides research, sales & trading and underwriting. According to the New York Times, the company should be considered part of Wall Street's “big boys' camp.” On Wednesday, Lazard reported its fourth quarter results. The company announced an EPS of $0.81, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61. Revenue of $620 million beat the consensus estimate of $558.4 million. Lazard achieved record annual operating revenue throughout 2013, driven by a strong second half in strategic advisory services where revenues grew 27 percent. Antony Currie of DealBook (owned by the Times) wrote that “Lazard looks more like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan than smaller rivals like Evercore Partners and Greenhill.” Lazard has certainly proven it is part of the “big boys camp” as it worked on some of the largest merger & acquisition deals of 2013 such as Berkshire Hathaway BRKB/A and 3G Capital's $28 billion acquisition of H.J. Heinz. Lazard also offered advice to Microsoft MSFT in its role in Dell's $24.9 billion going-private transaction. In the past six months, Lazard increased its advisory revenue by 27 percent as the company continues to follow sound business practices set by the company's Chief Executive Officer, Kenneth Jacobs. “We never made money by increasing the leverage of our balance sheet and taking risks,” said Jacobs in a 2011 interview. “We make money when we do things that our clients find valuable.” In 2013, Lazard participated in two-fifth of completed deals above $10 billion and in 30 percent of those $5 billion and higher.