Fifth Third Bancorp Purchases 349 Shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

Fifth Third Bancorp raised its stake in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 13.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,873 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 349 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in Jefferies Financial Group were worth $154,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $724,971,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 159.1% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,988,746 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $469,518,000 after buying an additional 3,677,233 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 63.7% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,381,149 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $421,882,000 after buying an additional 2,094,191 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 27.1% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,293,767 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $415,031,000 after buying an additional 1,127,335 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 57.4% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,941,692 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $309,029,000 after buying an additional 1,437,179 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.88% of the company’s stock.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE JEF opened at $53.21 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $49.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $61.69. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $39.28 and a 1-year high of $82.68. The firm has a market cap of $10.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.41 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.68.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.88 by ($0.28). Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 9.31% and a return on equity of 7.26%. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.93 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.87 earnings per share. Jefferies Financial Group’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 19th were issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.01%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 19th. Jefferies Financial Group’s payout ratio is currently 55.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on JEF. Oppenheimer lowered Jefferies Financial Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Morgan Stanley lowered Jefferies Financial Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $75.00 to $41.00 in a research report on Monday, April 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.75.

Jefferies Financial Group Profile

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.