4,884 Shares in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) Bought by Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 4,884 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $262,000.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $724,971,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 159.1% during the 4th 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 period. FMR LLC increased its position in 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 valued at $421,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,094,191 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $309,029,000 after purchasing an additional 1,437,179 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 27.1% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,293,767 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $415,031,000 after purchasing an additional 1,127,335 shares during the period. 60.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on JEF. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Jefferies Financial Group from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Oppenheimer downgraded Jefferies Financial Group from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Jefferies Financial Group from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $66.00.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Up 1.8%

JEF traded up $1.02 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $56.58. The stock had a trading volume of 1,480,450 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,695,582. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $51.05 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $60.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 0.99. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $39.28 and a twelve month high of $82.68. The company has a market capitalization of $11.67 billion, a PE ratio of 21.35 and a beta of 1.46.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.04). Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 6.62% and a net margin of 7.70%. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.64 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 18th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.83%. Jefferies Financial Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 55.36%.

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.