Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF Shares Purchased by Federated Hermes Inc.

Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 56.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,481,993 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 532,923 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. owned about 0.72% of Jefferies Financial Group worth $96,952,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lifted its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 0.4% in the second quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 45,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,505,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. State of Michigan Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 0.5% in the second quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 39,216 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,145,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 3.0% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 7,580 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $415,000 after buying an additional 224 shares in the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 4.6% during the second quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,188 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $338,000 after buying an additional 270 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 4.2% during the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 7,225 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $395,000 after acquiring an additional 289 shares during the period. 60.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on JEF. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $69.00 to $55.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 17th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $81.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Capital One Financial set a $55.00 target price on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a report on Friday, October 17th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a report on Tuesday, December 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $78.00 price objective on Jefferies Financial Group and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Jefferies Financial Group currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $72.71.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Down 0.7%

JEF stock opened at $61.81 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.84 and a beta of 1.51. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $39.28 and a 52-week high of $77.83. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $59.94.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 7th. The financial services provider reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.13. Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 6.56% and a return on equity of 7.31%. The firm had revenue of $2.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.01 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.91 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 17th. Jefferies Financial Group’s payout ratio is presently 56.54%.

Jefferies Financial Group Company Profile

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.