Vise Technologies Inc. Takes $994,000 Position in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF

Vise Technologies Inc. bought a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 19,892 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $994,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $834,947,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. raised its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 422.0% in the fourth quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 3,972,352 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $246,167,000 after buying an additional 3,211,375 shares during the period. Eminence Capital LP raised its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 13.5% in the fourth quarter. Eminence Capital LP now owns 3,812,615 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $236,268,000 after buying an additional 454,054 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 696.8% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,412,301 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $211,460,000 after buying an additional 2,984,055 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,942,554 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $182,390,000 after buying an additional 24,171 shares during the last quarter. 60.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Jefferies Financial Group Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of JEF stock opened at $52.35 on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $35.53 and a fifty-two week high of $71.04. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $55.34 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $50.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. The company has a market cap of $10.14 billion, a PE ratio of 14.62 and a beta of 1.54.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, June 24th. The financial services provider reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.16 by ($0.14). The business had revenue of $2.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.30 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 9.23% and a net margin of 7.58%.Jefferies Financial Group’s quarterly revenue was up 35.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.40 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 3.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, June 24th that authorizes the company to repurchase $250.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to buy up to 2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 28th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 18th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.1%. Jefferies Financial Group’s payout ratio is 44.69%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

JEF has been the topic of several research analyst reports. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $67.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Loop Capital set a $60.00 target price on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a report on Monday, June 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a report on Friday, June 5th. Oppenheimer decreased their price target on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $87.00 to $83.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Jefferies Financial Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.62.

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.