Lazard 2Q26 Earnings: Soft Quarter, 2H26 A Show Me Story

Research evidence excerpt

Lazard 2Q26 Earnings: Soft Quarter, 2H26 A Show Me Story

Global Research

23 July 2026ab

Lazard Equities

United States2Q26 Earnings: Soft Quarter, 2H26 A Show Me

Story Diversified Financial

12-month rating Neutral *

12m price target US$44.00Our Take: Comp Ratio Miss Overshadows Top Line Beat

LAZ shares underperformed boutique peers by ~80bps, after a higher than expected

comp ratio that missed even the highest street estimate despite revs better than Price (23 Jul 2026) US$43.05

expected. That said, management expects the pick up in the 2H advisory fees to be RIC: LAZ.N BBG: LAZ US

"pronounced", which is supported by LAZ's strong fee pipeline and expected closings in

2H26. We'd note that advisory revs are typically up ~11.4% 2H/1H (avg last 3 years), but Trading data and key metrics

we expect 2H26/1H26 to be up 35%, even above the 2021 26% level. Despite LAZ 52-wk range US$57.75-39.11

being the second-worst-performing boutique stock year to date, we believe an Market cap. US$4.08b

inflection in sentiment will require evidence of a meaningful 2H advisory recovery, Shares o/s 94.9m (COM)

supported by continued pipeline growth. Free float 98%

Avg. daily volume ('000) 734

Compensation Ratio Continues to Track Above Estimates Avg. daily value (m) US$32.3

The 2Q comp ratio of 69.9% came in well above the consensus estimate of 66.7%, and Common s/h equity (12/26E) US$0.77b

follows the historical accrual philosophy of flat in the first part of the year. While the P/BV (12/26E) 5.6x

above average gross increase in MD headcount is a drag to meaningful comp ratio Tier 1 ratio -

improvement in the near term, fixed comp headwinds should slow. In other words, '26

should start to mark a cross over year in the advisory J-curve before productivity ramps EPS (UBS, diluted) (USD)

12/26E