LSV Asset Management Decreases Position in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF

LSV Asset Management trimmed its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 96.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 468,300 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management’s holdings in Jefferies Financial Group were worth $1,178,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Root Financial Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Jefferies Financial Group in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $36,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 159.3% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 892 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 548 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 48.8% during the second quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 912 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 299 shares during the period. Finally, Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 3,577.8% in the second quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 993 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $54,000 after purchasing an additional 966 shares during the last quarter. 60.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE JEF opened at $53.64 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $61.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $60.07. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $39.28 and a fifty-two week high of $72.20. The company has a market capitalization of $11.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.96 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 0.99.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 7th. The financial services provider reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.83 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $2.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.01 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 7.27% and a net margin of 6.56%.The company’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.91 EPS. Analysts expect that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 17th. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.54%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on JEF. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $81.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Morgan Stanley set a $78.00 price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 8th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, December 1st. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research report on Tuesday, December 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $72.71.

Jefferies Financial Group Profile

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.