M&T Bank Corp Trims Stake in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF

M&T Bank Corp decreased its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 64.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 10,830 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 19,771 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in Jefferies Financial Group were worth $671,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in JEF. Eminence Capital LP grew its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 129.7% in the 3rd quarter. Eminence Capital LP now owns 3,358,561 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $219,717,000 after buying an additional 1,896,547 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 1.6% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,115,548 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $138,399,000 after acquiring an additional 32,708 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 5.2% in the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,777,169 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $116,262,000 after acquiring an additional 88,384 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 56.2% in the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,481,993 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $96,952,000 after acquiring an additional 532,923 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 16.4% in the third quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 909,803 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $59,519,000 after acquiring an additional 128,255 shares in the last quarter. 60.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

JEF has been the topic of several analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a report on Friday, March 27th. Oppenheimer dropped their target price on Jefferies Financial Group from $97.00 to $74.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 13th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Jefferies Financial Group from $68.00 to $42.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 23rd. UBS Group dropped their target price on Jefferies Financial Group from $76.00 to $59.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 12th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Jefferies Financial Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Jefferies Financial Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $58.14.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

JEF stock opened at $52.32 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.70 billion, a PE ratio of 17.68 and a beta of 1.53. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $35.53 and a 12-month high of $71.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $43.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $53.21.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.89 by ($0.19). The business had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.02 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 6.61% and a return on equity of 7.83%. The business’s revenue was up 26.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.57 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 29th. Investors of record on Monday, May 18th will be given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 18th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio is 54.05%.

Jefferies Financial Group Company Profile

Jefferies Financial Group Inc is a diversified financial services company that provides a range of investment banking, capital markets and asset management services to corporations, governments and institutional investors worldwide. Through its core platform, Jefferies offers advisory services for mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity underwriting, restructuring and recapitalization. The firm also operates a global sales and trading business covering equities, fixed income and foreign exchange products, complemented by equity research and macroeconomic analysis.

In addition to its capital markets franchise, Jefferies maintains a growing asset management division that delivers customized investment solutions across public and private markets.