Jefferies Financial Group Inc. engages in the investment banking and capital markets, and asset management businesses in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. The company operates in Investment Banking and Capital Markets, Asset Management, Merchant Banking, and Corporate segments. It provides investment banking, advisory services with respect to mergers or acquisitions, restructurings or recapitalizations and private capital advisory transactions; equity and debt underwriting; and corporate lending. In addition, the company offers financing, securities lending, and other prime brokerage services; equities research and finance; and wealth management services. Further, it provides clients with sales and trading of investment grade corporate bonds, U.S. and European government and agency securities, municipal bonds, mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities, leveraged loans, consumer loans, high yield and distressed securities, emerging markets debt, interest rate, and credit derivative products, as well as foreign exchange trade execution and securitization; and manages, invests in, and provides services to a diverse group of alternative asset management platforms across a spectrum of investment strategies and asset classes. The company was formerly known as Leucadia National Corporation and changed its name to Jefferies Financial Group Inc. in May 2018. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
A number of research firms have issued reports on JEF. Oppenheimer reduced their price target on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $50.00 to $47.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 7th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, August 4th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $33.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $35.50.
Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance
Shares of JEF traded up $0.05 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $33.14. The stock had a trading volume of 15,909 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,388,435. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $29.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.06. Jefferies Financial Group has a fifty-two week low of $25.88 and a fifty-two week high of $44.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.54 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 2.21 and a current ratio of 2.21.
Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF - Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, June 27th. The financial services provider reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.65 by ($0.19). Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 17.23% and a return on equity of 11.76%. The firm had revenue of $1.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.31 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 29.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Jefferies Financial Group will post 2.93 EPS for the current year.
Jefferies Financial Group Announces Dividend
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 15th will be given a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 12th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.62%. Jefferies Financial Group's dividend payout ratio is currently 27.40%.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other Jefferies Financial Group news, Director Thomas W. Jones bought 40,000 shares of Jefferies Financial Group stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $31.21 per share, with a total value of $1,248,400.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 55,962 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,746,574.02. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Jefferies Financial Group news, VP Rocco J. Nittoli sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.41, for a total transaction of $226,870.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Thomas W. Jones bought 40,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 25th. The stock was bought at an average price of $31.21 per share, for a total transaction of $1,248,400.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 55,962 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,746,574.02. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 17.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.
