Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) Shares Sold by Arizona State Retirement System

Arizona State Retirement System lowered its position in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 5.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 44,730 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,606 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Jefferies Financial Group were worth $3,507,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $286,476,000. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new position in Jefferies Financial Group in the fourth quarter worth approximately $772,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 7.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,504,513 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $154,153,000 after acquiring an additional 167,270 shares during the period. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC acquired a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group during the third quarter worth $1,718,000. Finally, Covenant Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group in the third quarter valued at $3,337,000. 60.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Jefferies Financial Group Trading Down 2.6 %

JEF opened at $56.24 on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $40.72 and a 52 week high of $82.68. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $72.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $69.64. The firm has a market cap of $11.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.87 and a beta of 1.37.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $1.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.83 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 10.57% and a return on equity of 7.92%. The business’s revenue was up 63.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.30 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This is an increase from Jefferies Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.85%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 53.69%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

JEF has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised Jefferies Financial Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $67.00 to $97.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Oppenheimer dropped their price target on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $82.00 to $81.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 3rd.

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.