SG Americas Securities LLC Raises Position in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 687.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 13,633 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 11,901 shares during the quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in Jefferies Financial Group were worth $730,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $724,971,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 159.1% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,988,746 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $469,518,000 after purchasing an additional 3,677,233 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 63.7% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,381,149 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $421,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,094,191 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 27.1% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,293,767 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $415,031,000 after acquiring an additional 1,127,335 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 57.4% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,941,692 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $309,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,437,179 shares during the last quarter. 60.88% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group increased 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. Wall Street Zen cut Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Morgan Stanley cut Jefferies Financial Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $75.00 to $41.00 in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer cut Jefferies Financial Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Jefferies Financial Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.75.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

NYSE JEF opened at $52.94 on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $39.28 and a 52 week high of $82.68. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.68. The stock has a market cap of $10.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.32 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $49.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $61.52.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last issued its 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). Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 7.26% and a net margin of 9.31%. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.87 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th were given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 19th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.02%. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio is 55.36%.

Jefferies Financial Group Company 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.