Farringdon Capital Ltd. Purchases New Shares in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

Farringdon Capital Ltd. bought a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 6,782 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $532,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $724,971,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 159.1% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,988,746 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $469,518,000 after purchasing an additional 3,677,233 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 63.7% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,381,149 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $421,882,000 after acquiring an additional 2,094,191 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 27.1% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,293,767 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $415,031,000 after acquiring an additional 1,127,335 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 57.4% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,941,692 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $309,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,437,179 shares during the period. 60.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

Shares of JEF traded up $2.27 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $45.67. 598,628 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,573,931. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.42 billion, a PE ratio of 15.33 and a beta of 1.29. The business's 50 day moving average price is $55.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $67.32. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $39.28 and a 1-year 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.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.88 by ($0.28). Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 10.57% and a return on equity of 7.92%. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.87 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 29th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th will be issued 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 dividend yield of 3.50%. Jefferies Financial Group's payout ratio is currently 55.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on JEF. Oppenheimer cut shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. StockNews.com lowered Jefferies Financial Group from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Monday, March 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $75.00 price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut Jefferies Financial Group from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and cut their price objective for the company from $75.00 to $41.00 in a research note on Monday, April 7th.

Jefferies Financial Group 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.