Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at StockNews.com

StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF – Get Rating) in a report published on Saturday. The firm issued a hold rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a buy rating to a neutral rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, January 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $38.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 21st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Jefferies Financial Group currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $37.75.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

Shares of JEF stock traded down $1.17 on Friday, hitting $30.03. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 15,768,973 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,310,773. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.16. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $37.62 and its 200-day moving average is $35.36. Jefferies Financial Group has a fifty-two week low of $25.88 and a fifty-two week high of $40.80. The company has a market capitalization of $6.83 billion, a PE ratio of 9.91 and a beta of 1.42.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 9th. The financial services provider reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.57. Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 12.90% and a return on equity of 8.34%. The business had revenue of $1.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.36 earnings per share. Jefferies Financial Group’s revenue was down 20.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Jefferies Financial Group will post 3.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 24th. Investors of record on Monday, February 13th were given a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 10th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.00%. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio is 39.60%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Jefferies Financial Group

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 1.3% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 18,482,896 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $607,163,000 after acquiring an additional 233,844 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 44.6% in the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 7,152,883 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $234,972,000 after acquiring an additional 2,207,065 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 0.9% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,753,327 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $188,997,000 after acquiring an additional 52,336 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,337,955 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $148,708,000 after acquiring an additional 146,306 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 8.6% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,113,544 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $141,012,000 after acquiring an additional 325,783 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 66.04% of the company’s stock.

Jefferies Financial Group Company Profile

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Jefferies Financial Group, Inc is a holding company, which engages in the provision of financial services. It operates through Investment Banking and Capital Markets, and Asset Management. The Investment Banking and Capital Markets segment provides investment banking, capital markets, and other related services.