Legg Mason Hits New 52-Week Low

Shares of Legg Mason Inc (NYSE: LM) hit a new 52-week low of $29.60 on Friday after the company reported its third quarter results and confirmed a series of strategic investments and acquisitions.

Legg Mason earned $1.45 per share on revenue of $659.56 million during the third quarter. Wall Street analysts were expecting the company to earn $0.70 per share on revenue of $683.53 million.

Legg Mason also reported a net loss of $138.6 million compared to a net income of $64.3 million in the same quarter a year ago.

"Our operating results for the quarter reflected a challenging period for asset management firms, and included a negative impact from a significant non-cash impairment charge," Joseph A. Sullivan, Chairman and CEO of Legg Mason said. "While quarterly long-term flows were negative in the aggregate, we generated another quarter of positive fixed income flows despite industry net outflows in active taxable fixed income. Equity flows remained challenged, consistent with industry trends, exacerbated by capital gains distributions and year-end tax selling."

Strategic Investments And Acquisitions

Legg Mason also reported the following strategic investments and acquisitions:

1. Legg Mason entered into an agreement to combine its existing hedge fund platform, Permal, with EnTrust Capital.

2. Legg Mason announced it has acquired an 83 percent stake in Clarian Partners, a real estate investment firm based in New York that manages approximately $40 billion of assets.

3. Legg Mason announced it has acquired a minority equity stake in Precidian Investments, a firm that specializes in creating innovative products and solutions and solving market structure issues.