Farther Finance Advisors LLC Trims Stock Position in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

Farther Finance Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 3.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 10,645 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 341 shares during the quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC’s holdings in Jefferies Financial Group were worth $835,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of JEF. GSA Capital Partners LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group in the third quarter valued at about $332,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 45.5% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 89,605 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,515,000 after purchasing an additional 28,011 shares in the last quarter. MQS Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the third quarter valued at approximately $256,000. KBC Group NV lifted its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 1.0% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 110,259 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,786,000 after buying an additional 1,086 shares during the period. Finally, Huntington National Bank lifted its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 14,055.6% during the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,274 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $78,000 after buying an additional 1,265 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 60.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $82.00 to $81.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $92.00 to $81.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $75.00 price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

Shares of JEF stock opened at $56.42 on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a one year low of $40.72 and a one year high of $82.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.07. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $70.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $69.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.93 and a beta of 1.37.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.97 by ($0.06). Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 7.92% and a net margin of 10.57%. The company had revenue of $1.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.83 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.30 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 63.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This is a positive change from Jefferies Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.84%. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio is 53.69%.

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.