ABN Amro Investment Solutions Invests $2.14 Million in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF

ABN Amro Investment Solutions acquired a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 32,737 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,142,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of JEF. Boston Common Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Jefferies Financial Group during the third quarter worth $4,011,000. AlphaQuest LLC grew its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 927.8% in the 3rd quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 26,004 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,701,000 after purchasing an additional 23,474 shares during the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 71.8% during the 3rd quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 50,453 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,301,000 after purchasing an additional 21,085 shares in the last quarter. Brian Low Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Jefferies Financial Group during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,358,000. Finally, Covea Finance bought a new position in Jefferies Financial Group during the 3rd quarter valued at about $11,488,000. Institutional investors own 60.88% of the company’s stock.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

JEF stock opened at $53.64 on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $39.28 and a twelve month high of $72.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73. The company has a market cap of $11.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.96 and a beta of 1.50. The business’s fifty day moving average is $61.44 and its 200-day moving average is $60.07.

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

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.54%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Jefferies Financial Group from $81.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Morgan Stanley set a $78.00 target price on Jefferies Financial Group and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 8th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research note on Monday, December 29th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a report on Tuesday, December 30th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, December 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $72.71.

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.