Financial advisory firm Lazard (NYSE: LAZ) announced better-than-expected revenue in Q2 CY2026, with sales up 7.8% year on year to $830.2 million. Its non-GAAP profit of $0.12 per share was 66% below analysts’ consensus estimates.

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Company Overview

Tracing its roots back to 1848 when it began as a dry goods merchant in New Orleans, Lazard (NYSE: LAZ) is a global financial advisory and asset management firm that provides strategic advice to corporations, governments, institutions, and wealthy individuals.

Revenue Growth

Examining a company’s long-term performance can provide clues about its quality. Any business can experience short-term success, but top-performing ones enjoy sustained growth for years. Unfortunately, Lazard’s 1.6% annualized revenue growth over the last five years was sluggish. This fell short of our benchmarks and is a rough starting point for our analysis.

We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within financials, a half-decade historical view may miss recent interest rate changes, market returns, and industry trends. Lazard’s annualized revenue growth of 7% over the last two years is above its five-year trend, which is encouraging. Note: Quarters not shown were determined to be outliers because they were impacted by outsized investment gains/losses that are not indicative of the recurring fundamentals of the business.

This quarter, Lazard reported year-on-year revenue growth of 7.8%, and its $830.2 million of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 12.8%.

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Assets Under Management (AUM)

Assets Under Management (AUM) encompasses all client funds under a firm’s investment management umbrella. The recurring fee structure on these assets provides consistent revenue generation, offering financial stability even during periods of poor investment returns, though sustained underperformance can impact future asset flows.

Lazard’s AUM was flat over the last five years, much worse than the broader financials industry and worse than its total revenue. When analyzing Lazard’s AUM over the last two years, we can see that growth accelerated to 4.7% annually. Fundraising or short-term investment performance was a net detractor to the company over this shorter period since assets grew slower than total revenue. But again, we put less weight on asset growth given how lumpy and cyclical it can be.

Lazard’s AUM punched in at $284.7 billion this quarter, meeting analysts’ expectations. This print was 14.6% higher than the same quarter last year.

Key Takeaways from Lazard’s Q2 Results

We were impressed by how significantly Lazard beat analysts’ revenue expectations this quarter. We were also happy its AUM was in line with Wall Street’s estimates. On the other hand, its EPS missed. Overall, this was a mixed quarter. The stock traded down 2.8% to $42.35 immediately after reporting.

Big picture, is Lazard a buy here and now? We think that the latest quarter is only one piece of the longer-term business quality puzzle. Quality, when combined with valuation, can help determine if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).