Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Decreases Stock Position in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 20.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 200,775 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 52,989 shares during the quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. owned approximately 0.10% of Jefferies Financial Group worth $13,135,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $107,356,000. Eminence Capital LP acquired a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group in the second quarter worth $79,958,000. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 6,056.0% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 949,070 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $51,905,000 after acquiring an additional 933,653 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 45.2% during the second quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,082,840 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $113,911,000 after acquiring an additional 648,762 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the second quarter valued at $32,395,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.88% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley set a $78.00 target price on shares of Jefferies Financial Group and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 8th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $69.00 to $55.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Jefferies Financial Group from $81.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Jefferies Financial Group presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $72.71.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Up 1.8%

Shares of NYSE JEF opened at $60.00 on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $39.28 and a 52-week high of $74.74. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $61.70 and a 200-day moving average of $60.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.40 billion, a PE ratio of 21.20 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 7th. The financial services provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.83 by $0.13. Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 7.27% and a net margin of 6.56%.The business had revenue of $2.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.01 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.91 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 17th. Jefferies Financial Group’s payout ratio is currently 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.