L & S Advisors Inc Cuts Stake in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

L & S Advisors Inc cut its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 41,433 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 748 shares during the quarter. L & S Advisors Inc’s holdings in Jefferies Financial Group were worth $3,248,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in JEF. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $286,476,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 57.4% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,941,692 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $309,029,000 after buying an additional 1,437,179 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 782.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,286,958 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $202,312,000 after buying an additional 2,914,504 shares during the period. Barclays PLC boosted its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 20.6% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 2,014,387 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $123,987,000 after acquiring an additional 344,409 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,645,844 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $129,028,000 after acquiring an additional 47,141 shares during the period. 60.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

Shares of JEF stock opened at $52.17 on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $40.72 and a fifty-two week high of $82.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.51 and a beta of 1.37. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $66.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $69.47.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.88 by ($0.28). The company had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.93 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 7.92% and a net margin of 10.57%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.87 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 29th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 19th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.07%. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 53.69%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

JEF has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Oppenheimer downgraded Jefferies Financial Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $75.00 price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $81.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday.

About Jefferies Financial Group

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.