Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) Receives $66.00 Average Price Target from Analysts

Key Points

• Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has an average recommendation of "Hold" from five brokerages, with one sell rating, two holds, and two buy ratings.
• The stock's average 12-month price objective among analysts is $66.00, while recent reports show mixed signals with ratings being downgraded to "strong sell" from "hold" and price targets ranging from $54.00 to $62.00.
• Jefferies has a quarterly dividend of $0.40 per share, with an annualized yield of 2.5%, indicating a consistent payout strategy amid varying earnings performance.

Shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF - Get Free Report) have received a consensus rating of "Hold" from the five ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $66.00.

JEF has been the subject of several analyst reports. 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. Zacks Research lowered shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research note on Monday, August 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 26th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 230.1% during the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 126,015 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $6,971,000 after acquiring an additional 87,841 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 40.1% during the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 11,648 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $637,000 after acquiring an additional 3,334 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 3.0% during the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 100,331 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $5,648,000 after acquiring an additional 2,951 shares in the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC raised its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 14.1% during the second quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 9,552 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $522,000 after acquiring an additional 1,181 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC raised its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 25.7% during the second quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 17,412 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $952,000 after acquiring an additional 3,565 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.88% of the company's stock.

Jefferies Financial Group Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of NYSE:JEF traded down $0.60 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $64.89. 1,450,721 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,454,862. Jefferies Financial Group has a 1-year low of $39.28 and a 1-year high of $82.68. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $57.99 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $54.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.68. The firm has a market cap of $13.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.49 and a beta of 1.48.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, June 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.04). Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 6.59% and a net margin of 7.70%.The business had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.64 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Jefferies Financial Group will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 18th were paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 18th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. Jefferies Financial Group's payout ratio is presently 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.