Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) Cut to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday morning.

Separately, Oppenheimer raised their target price on Jefferies Financial Group from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $43.33.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Down 1.2 %

JEF stock opened at $41.30 on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group has a twelve month low of $28.81 and a twelve month high of $47.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $42.73 and its 200-day moving average is $38.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.76 billion, a PE ratio of 33.85 and a beta of 1.37.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, March 27th. The financial services provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.11. Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 4.41% and a net margin of 5.90%. The company had revenue of $1.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.55 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Jefferies Financial Group will post 3.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Investors of record on Monday, May 20th will be given a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.91%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 17th. Jefferies Financial Group’s payout ratio is 98.36%.

Institutional Trading of Jefferies Financial Group

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 7.8% in the first quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 46,910 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,541,000 after buying an additional 3,383 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. increased its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 5.5% in the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 132,567 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,355,000 after buying an additional 6,890 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. increased its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 14.0% in the first quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 14,518 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $477,000 after buying an additional 1,785 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 8.9% in the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 70,910 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,329,000 after buying an additional 5,778 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BlackRock Inc. increased its position in 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 buying an additional 233,844 shares during the last quarter. 60.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Jefferies Financial Group Company Profile

Jefferies Financial Group Inc operates as an investment banking and capital markets firm in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific. The company operates in two segments, Investment Banking and Capital Markets, and Asset Management. It provides investment banking, advisory services with respect to mergers or acquisitions, debt financing, restructurings or recapitalizations, and private capital advisory transactions; underwriting and placement services related to corporate debt, municipal bonds, mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities, equity and equity-linked securities, and loan syndication services; and corporate lending services.