Invesco Ltd. Has $111.63 Million Stake in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF

Key Points

• Invesco Ltd. has significantly reduced its stake in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. by 60.6%, selling over 3.2 million shares and now holding approximately 1.01% of the company.
• Other institutional investors have been increasing their positions, with Allspring Global Investments and JPMorgan Chase & Co. growing their stakes by 4.0% and 30.1%, respectively.
• Jefferies Financial Group recently reported Q2 earnings of $0.40 per share, missing analysts' expectations and posting a 1.3% decline in revenue compared to the previous year.

Invesco Ltd. cut its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF - Free Report) by 60.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,083,808 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 3,209,959 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. owned 1.01% of Jefferies Financial Group worth $111,630,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 30.1% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,126,514 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $274,627,000 after buying an additional 1,184,822 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 135.1% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,805,897 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $141,582,000 after acquiring an additional 1,037,785 shares during the period. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 87.8% during the 1st quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 798,000 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $42,749,000 after acquiring an additional 373,000 shares during the period. Tran Capital Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the 1st quarter worth approximately $14,814,000. Finally, Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC bought a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group in the 4th quarter valued at $20,144,000. 60.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on JEF. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised 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 report on Thursday, May 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $66.00.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

NYSE JEF traded down $0.3240 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $59.7060. The company had a trading volume of 1,267,726 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,811,030. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $56.30 and a 200-day moving average price of $55.41. The company has a market capitalization of $12.32 billion, a PE ratio of 22.53 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.68. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $39.28 and a twelve month high of $82.68.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, June 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 6.59% and a net margin of 7.70%.The business's revenue for the quarter was down 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.64 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate 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 Friday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 18th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 18th. Jefferies Financial Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 60.38%.

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.