Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the seven research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $58.1429.

A number of brokerages recently commented on JEF. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $97.00 to $74.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $47.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Zacks Research raised shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $68.00 to $42.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a report on Friday, March 27th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Jefferies Financial Group

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. grew its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 422.0% in the fourth quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 3,972,352 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $246,167,000 after purchasing an additional 3,211,375 shares during the last quarter. Eminence Capital LP grew its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 13.5% in the fourth quarter. Eminence Capital LP now owns 3,812,615 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $236,268,000 after purchasing an additional 454,054 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 696.8% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,412,301 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $211,460,000 after purchasing an additional 2,984,055 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,942,554 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $182,390,000 after purchasing an additional 24,171 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 2.2% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,666,097 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $110,015,000 after purchasing an additional 58,585 shares during the last quarter. 60.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:JEF opened at $52.24 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $10.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.65 and a beta of 1.53. Jefferies Financial Group has a 52 week low of $35.53 and a 52 week high of $71.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $44.29 and a 200 day moving average of $53.15.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 7.83% and a net margin of 6.61%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 26.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.57 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Jefferies Financial Group will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Announces Dividend

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