Legal & General Group Plc Sells 62,165 Shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF

Key Points

• Legal & General Group Plc cut its Jefferies Financial Group stake by 19.4% in the fourth quarter, selling 62,165 shares and leaving it with 258,358 shares worth about $16.0 million.
• Analysts have turned more cautious on JEF, with several firms lowering price targets and Morgan Stanley downgrading the stock to equal weight. The consensus rating now stands at Hold, with an average target price of $58.14.
• Jefferies reported quarterly EPS of $0.70, below expectations, even as revenue matched estimates at $2.02 billion and rose 26.6% year over year. The company also paid a $0.40 quarterly dividend, implying a 3.0% yield.

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its position in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF - Free Report) by 19.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 258,358 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 62,165 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.12% of Jefferies Financial Group worth $16,010,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Salomon & Ludwin LLC increased its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 75.0% in the 4th quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 413 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 177 shares in the last quarter. Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new position in Jefferies Financial Group during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Nvwm LLC bought a new position in Jefferies Financial Group during the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. First Horizon Corp increased its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 68.1% during the 4th quarter. First Horizon Corp now owns 622 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 252 shares in the last quarter. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC increased its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 433.3% during the 4th quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 736 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 598 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.88% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on Jefferies Financial Group from $97.00 to $74.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 13th. Morgan Stanley cut Jefferies Financial Group from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $49.00 target price for the company. in a report on Monday, March 9th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Jefferies Financial Group from $76.00 to $59.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 12th. Zacks Research upgraded Jefferies Financial Group from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Jefferies Financial Group from $68.00 to $42.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Jefferies Financial Group presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $58.14.

Jefferies Financial Group Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of NYSE:JEF opened at $53.17 on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $35.53 and a 52-week high of $71.04. The company has a market capitalization of $10.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.96 and a beta of 1.54. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $47.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $52.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, March 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.89 by ($0.19). Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 6.61% and a return on equity of 7.83%. The firm had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.57 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 26.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Investors of record on Monday, May 18th were paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 18th. Jefferies Financial Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.05%.

About Jefferies Financial Group

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.

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