Lazard third-quarter net income falls to $29 million as adjusted revenue rises 11%. Adjusted net revenue rose 11% to $805 million, while U.S. GAAP net income fell 59% and compensation expense rose 14%. By Yash Upadhyaya Oct 23, 2026 Key takeaways. * Lazard, Inc. (LAZ) reported third-quarter 2026 U.S. GAAP net income of $29 million, or $0.26 per diluted share, down from $71 million a year earlier. Adjusted net revenue rose 11% to $805 million. The results were released on Oct. 22, 2026. Lazard, Inc. (LAZ) said Thursday in a regulatory filing that it reported third-quarter 2026 U.S. GAAP net income of $29 million, or $0.26 per diluted share, compared with $71 million a year earlier. Here's how the company did: * Net revenue, U.S. GAAP: $814 million vs. $748 million a year earlier * Adjusted net revenue: $805 million vs. $725 million a year earlier * Net income, U.S. GAAP: $29 million vs. $71 million a year earlier * Diluted EPS, U.S. GAAP: $0.26 vs. $0.65 a year earlier * Diluted EPS, adjusted: $0.36 vs. $0.56 a year earlier Adjusted figures are non-GAAP measures that the company reconciles to U.S. GAAP results in the filing. Adjusted net revenue rose 11% from a year earlier, while U.S. GAAP net revenue rose 9%. For the first nine months, U.S. GAAP net revenue was $2,378 million, up 8% from $2,192 million a year earlier. Net income was $135 million, or $1.20 per diluted share, down 28% from $187 million. Adjusted net revenue for the first nine months was $2,264 million, up 6%. Adjusted diluted earnings were $0.90 per share, down 45% from $1.64. Here's how other Lazard segments did during the quarter: * Financial Advisory net revenue, U.S. GAAP: $470 million, up 10% from a year earlier * Asset Management net revenue, U.S. GAAP: $357 million, up 9% from a year earlier * Adjusted Asset Management net revenue: $330 million, up 12% * Average assets under management: $287 billion, up 11% from a year earlier Financial Advisory revenue includes an amount pulled into the quarter for transactions that closed just after Sept. 30. The company said that amount is in line with its two-year average. For the first nine months, Financial Advisory net revenue on a U.S. GAAP basis was $1,279 million, 1% lower than a year earlier. During and since the third quarter, Lazard advised Emera on its announced merger with Canadian Utilities, for a combined enterprise value of approximately C$72 billion. It also advised Corteva Agriscience on its $50 billion spinoff of Vylor. "Our Lazard 2030 strategy continues to progress as planned, with strong momentum firm-wide," said CEO and Chairman Peter R. Orszag. "Financial Advisory delivered record third quarter revenue as the investments we have made in the business increasingly translate into results, while client activity and our forward indicators remain strong." Adjusted management fees in Asset Management were $321 million, 18% higher than a year earlier and 4% higher than the second quarter. Adjusted incentive fees were $1 million, compared with $9 million a year earlier. Ending assets under management were $284 billion at Sept. 30, up 7% from a year earlier and roughly flat from June 30. The company reported market appreciation of $1.9 billion, net outflows of $2.3 billion and foreign exchange depreciation of $0.2 billion in the quarter. For the first nine months, net inflows were $5.1 billion. U.S. GAAP Asset Management revenue for the period included a non-cash gain of $75.5 million on the sale and deconsolidation of the Edgewater management vehicles, which the adjusted figures exclude. "Our third quarter results show increasing traction from efforts to reposition our businesses, with firm-wide adjusted net revenue up 11 percent year-over-year," said CFO Tracy Farr. "We continue to advance initiatives to simplify and modernize our operating model and embed AI across the firm, with the goals of improving client outcomes, supporting a more effective way of working for our colleagues, and improving our margin over time." Compensation and benefits expense on a U.S. GAAP basis was $569 million, up 14% from $498 million a year earlier. The adjusted compensation ratio was 69.9%, compared with 65.5% in the third quarter of 2025. As part of its Lazard 2030 vision, the company aims for an adjusted compensation ratio of 60% or below, with timing dependent on market conditions. U.S. GAAP non-compensation expenses were $190 million, 9% higher than a year earlier. Adjusted non-compensation expenses were $156 million, 5% higher, and the adjusted ratio was 19.3%, compared with 20.5%. The company's long-term target for the adjusted non-compensation ratio is between 16% and 20%, also dependent on market conditions. The third quarter included $5.6 million in expenses tied to the departure of certain executive officers and $4.1 million related to the pending acquisition of Campbell Lutyens. The filing does not disclose the terms of that acquisition. The provision for income taxes was $25 million in the quarter, an effective tax rate of 45.8% on a U.S. GAAP basis and 38.1% on an adjusted basis. Lazard returned $88 million to shareholders in the quarter: $49 million in dividends, $33 million in share repurchases and $6 million for employee tax obligations on vesting equity. Over the first nine months, it repurchased 1.9 million shares at an average price of $43.68. About $224 million remained on the company's share repurchase authorization as of Sept. 30. On Oct. 21, Lazard declared a quarterly dividend of $0.50 per share, payable Nov. 13 to holders of record on Nov. 2. Cash and cash equivalents were $1,264 million at Sept. 30, and the company said its financial position remains strong. The filing contains no new full-year financial guidance. It gives the Lazard 2030 targets, and the CEO said the new private capital advisory business, Lazard CL, launches in early November.

Lazard has appointed David Krap as co-head of European consumer, retail and leisure and senior managing director. Chief accounting officer Michael Gathy has notified the firm that he will resign. The changes follow weaker third-quarter results. Net income fell to $29.16 million from $71.25 million a year earlier, and nine-month earnings dropped to $134.88 million from $186.97 million. The board affirmed a quarterly dividend of $0.50, payable on November 13, 2026. The moves fit a plan focused on private capital advisory growth, higher-fee asset management, and lower compensation costs. Accounting oversight will be consolidated under the chief financial officer. Lazard has a market cap of about $3.6 billion.

What Lazard (LAZ) said on its Q3 earnings call. Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) reported that adjusted net revenue rose 11% year over year in the third quarter of 2026, supported by record quarterly financial advisory revenue and continued growth in asset-management management fees. Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Peter Orszag said the firm's Lazard 2030 strategy was progressing as planned, citing stronger client activity, forward indicators in advisory and record gross inflows in asset management. Orszag also said Lazard expects to close its acquisition of Campbell Lutyens and launch Lazard CL, its third global business focused on private capital advisory, in early November after receiving regulatory approvals. The firm continues to expect Lazard CL to generate approximately $500 million in revenue and be accretive to earnings in 2027, excluding potential synergies. Financial Advisory sets third-quarter record. Financial advisory adjusted net revenue totaled $465 million in the third quarter and $1.3 billion in the first nine months of 2026. Chief Financial Officer Tracy Farr said the quarterly result included transaction-fee pull-forwards from deals that closed shortly after Sept. 30, though the amount was in line with the company's two-year average. The record quarterly result was driven primarily by mergers and acquisitions, with record third-quarter and nine-month revenue in both the Americas and the United Kingdom. Orszag said Lazard's investments in talent were beginning to translate into results. Over the last three years, the firm has hired or promoted 80 managing directors in North America in sectors including healthcare, industrials, consumer, media and entertainment, technology, and power and infrastructure. Lazard's announced league-table position is its strongest in more than a decade, according to Orszag. Dollar-weighted conflict clearances rose more than 30% year over year, while conflict clearances for transactions above $5 billion increased more than 85%. The company's weighted pipeline for 2027 was slightly more than twice the level of its 2026 pipeline at the same point last year, measured on a revenue basis and weighted by the estimated probability of collecting fees. For the third quarter, Lazard said approximately 61% of advisory revenue came from M&A and 39% from non-M&A businesses. The company continues to expect the second half of 2026 to be stronger than the first half, with a stronger second-half-to-first-half revenue relationship than in 2025. Completed advisory assignments included Corteva Agriscience's $50 billion spin-off of Vylor, MasTec's $1.7 billion acquisition of Superior Group, and Geneta Health's sale to R1. Recently announced assignments included Emera's merger with Canadian Utilities, with a combined enterprise value of approximately CAD 72 billion, and OCS Group's proposed £3.1 billion acquisition. Campbell Lutyens integration and M&A outlook. Orszag said the Campbell Lutyens business was performing ahead of assumptions underlying the acquisition. Lazard sees early cost-synergy opportunities involving real estate, vendors and information technology, along with revenue opportunities from referrals between Lazard CL's fundraising and secondary-advisory operations and Lazard's M&A bankers. "We anticipate, even though we didn't assume that in underwriting the deal, that we will be able to at least match, and in all likelihood, significantly beat" the M&A referral levels generated under Campbell Lutyens' former joint venture with another investment bank, Orszag said. Management said higher interest rates have not materially reduced strategic clients' willingness to pursue transactions. Orszag cited the need for scale amid technological change, greater vertical integration to address supply-chain disruptions, and efforts to reconfigure geographic footprints as major drivers of activity. He also pointed to a more constructive U.S. regulatory environment, particularly for large transactions. Private-equity M&A has yet to fully recover, management said, as portfolio-company owners await better valuations while limited partners seek liquidity. Orszag said that environment is also supporting demand for secondaries advisory. Lazard expects restructuring activity to continue growing, with higher rates contributing to distress among weaker-performing companies and potential stress in parts of the AI ecosystem. Asset Management fees rise as performance improves. Asset management adjusted net revenue was $330 million in the third quarter and $970 million in the first nine months. Management fees reached a record $321 million for the quarter, up 18% year over year, and $927 million for the nine-month period, up 22%. The third quarter marked Lazard's sixth consecutive quarter of sequential management-fee growth. Assets under management stood at $284 billion at Sept. 30, up 7% from a year earlier and roughly unchanged from the prior quarter. During the quarter, market appreciation added $1.9 billion, foreign-exchange movements reduced assets by $0.2 billion, and net outflows were $2.3 billion. Average AUM was $287 billion, 11% above the prior-year quarter. Gross inflows reached a record $54 billion in the first nine months, and the company said it remains on track for positive net flows for the full year. As of quarter-end, 70% of client AUM outperformed stated benchmarks over one year and 67% outperformed over three years, Lazard's best investment-performance results in five years. Chris Hogbin, CEO of Asset Management, said client demand was strongest in areas delivering consistent performance, including Lazard Advantage quantitative equity strategies, emerging markets, Japanese equities, fixed income and convertible arbitrage. Lazard's international quantitative ETF, IDEQ, had grown to nearly $2 billion in AUM since launching last year. The firm plans to introduce its first actively managed fixed-income ETFs next month. Expenses, capital returns and efficiency efforts. Lazard reported adjusted non-compensation expense of $156 million in the third quarter, representing a 19.3% non-compensation ratio. Adjusted compensation expense was $562 million, or a 69.9% compensation ratio. Farr said the company continued to take a conservative approach to compensation accruals, with the quarterly accrual unchanged from the first two quarters. The company is considering reducing its compensation deferral rate as part of the year-end process. Farr said such a change would accelerate compensation-expense recognition in the current year without changing total compensation awarded, raising the reported compensation ratio by a few percentage points this year while reducing it in later years. Management has not made a final decision. Lazard is also pursuing operational-efficiency initiatives, including centralizing and automating certain corporate and support functions, rationalizing vendors and expanding the use of artificial intelligence. Farr said the company expects to provide specifics on expense reductions beginning in 2027. During the third quarter, Lazard returned $88 million to shareholders, including $49 million in dividends and $33 million in share repurchases. The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.50 per share and said it expects to continue repurchases through the remainder of the year while balancing buybacks with investment and compensation-related share issuance. About Lazard (NYSE:LAZ). Lazard, Ltd. is a global financial advisory and asset management firm that serves corporations, financial institutions, governments, sovereign entities and individuals. Its Financial Advisory business provides advice on mergers and acquisitions, strategic matters, capital structure, restructuring, capital raising and other complex financial transactions. Through its Asset Management business, Lazard offers investment strategies across equities, fixed income, private markets, alternatives and multi-asset portfolios.