Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF Stock Holdings Increased by Intech Investment Management LLC

Intech Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 95.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 132,263 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 64,682 shares during the quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Jefferies Financial Group were worth $8,196,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in JEF. Eminence Capital LP raised its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 129.7% in the 3rd quarter. Eminence Capital LP now owns 3,358,561 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $219,717,000 after purchasing an additional 1,896,547 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp increased its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 2,644.1% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 839,716 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $52,037,000 after acquiring an additional 809,115 shares in the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the third quarter valued at approximately $49,783,000. Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $32,395,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 245.2% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 651,216 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $42,603,000 after acquiring an additional 462,546 shares during the period. 60.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

Shares of JEF opened at $52.77 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $47.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $53.03. 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 $10.79 billion, a PE ratio of 17.83 and a beta of 1.53. 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) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $2.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.57 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 3.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Investors of record on Monday, May 18th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 18th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. Jefferies Financial Group’s payout ratio is presently 54.05%.

Jefferies Financial Group Company 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.