BNP Paribas Financial Markets Buys 2,555 Shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 14.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 20,286 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,555 shares during the quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets’ holdings in Jefferies Financial Group were worth $1,590,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Alteri Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group during the 4th quarter worth about $593,000. Bison Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group during the 4th quarter worth about $224,000. Comerica Bank grew its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 7.1% during the 4th quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 78,221 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,132,000 after acquiring an additional 5,194 shares during the last quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 837.3% during the 4th quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 54,485 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,272,000 after acquiring an additional 48,672 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 32.4% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 145,295 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $11,391,000 after acquiring an additional 35,564 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.88% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

JEF has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the company from $75.00 to $41.00 in a research report on Monday, April 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.75.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:JEF opened at $52.75 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $10.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.70 and a beta of 1.47. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $50.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $65.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.07. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $39.28 and a fifty-two week high of $82.68.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by ($0.28). The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.93 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 10.57% and a return on equity of 7.92%. The business’s revenue was down 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.87 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 29th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th will be given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 19th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.03%. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio is 55.36%.

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.