Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Buys 67,500 Shares of KE Holdings Inc. Sponsored ADR $BEKE

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in KE Holdings Inc. Sponsored ADR (NYSE:BEKE) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 67,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,137,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of KE by 17.1% during the third quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 10,395,865 shares of the company’s stock valued at $175,170,000 after purchasing an additional 1,518,222 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in KE by 16.0% in the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,915,061 shares of the company’s stock worth $129,536,000 after purchasing an additional 1,231,445 shares in the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. grew its position in KE by 5.8% in the 2nd quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,942,507 shares of the company’s stock worth $86,345,000 after purchasing an additional 324,707 shares in the last quarter. M&G PLC increased its stake in KE by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 1,281,871 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,792,000 after buying an additional 24,557 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Perseverance Asset Management International increased its stake in KE by 20.4% in the 1st quarter. Perseverance Asset Management International now owns 1,391,439 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,830,000 after buying an additional 236,000 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 39.34% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Zacks Research cut shares of KE from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 26th. Wall Street Zen raised KE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, August 29th. Weiss Ratings raised KE from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Friday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of KE in a research report on Friday, August 21st. Finally, CLSA began coverage on KE in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $23.80 price target on the stock. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $23.64.

Insider Transactions at KE

In other news, CEO Yongdong Peng sold 16,033,983 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.27, for a total transaction of $84,499,090.41. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 62,824,251 shares in the company, valued at $331,083,802.77. This trade represents a 20.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Yigang Shan sold 3,326,670 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.44, for a total value of $18,097,084.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 53,868,189 shares in the company, valued at approximately $293,042,948.16. The trade was a 5.82% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 6.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

KE Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:BEKE traded up $0.23 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $17.88. The company had a trading volume of 6,369,794 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,066,782. The stock has a market cap of $20.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.31, a P/E/G ratio of 0.57 and a beta of -0.27. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $17.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $16.87. The company has a current ratio of 3.30, a quick ratio of 3.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. KE Holdings Inc. Sponsored ADR has a 52-week low of $13.81 and a 52-week high of $19.88.

KE (NYSE:BEKE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 21st. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $3.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.59 billion. KE had a net margin of 5.38% and a return on equity of 7.62%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that KE Holdings Inc. Sponsored ADR will post 1.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

KE Profile

KE Holdings Inc. operates Beike, a real estate services platform in China that connects consumers with agents and other housing service providers. Its services include existing-home and new-home sales, residential rentals, and related services such as property management and home renovation. The company’s business traces its roots to Lianjia, a real estate brokerage founded in Beijing in 2001 by Zuo Hui. KE Holdings was established in 2018, and its Beike platform brings together Lianjia and other participating agencies.