Brokerages Set Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) Price Target at $72.71

Shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) have been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the seven ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $72.7143.

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research note on Tuesday, December 30th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $81.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Zacks Research cut shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Morgan Stanley set a $78.00 price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research note on Monday, December 29th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Jefferies Financial Group

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dean Capital Management lifted its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 27.6% in the 4th quarter. Dean Capital Management now owns 29,603 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,834,000 after buying an additional 6,403 shares during the period. Alberta Investment Management Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,574,000. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 593.9% during the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 185,791 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $11,513,000 after acquiring an additional 159,016 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Jefferies Financial Group in the fourth quarter worth $269,000. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 36,347 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,252,000 after acquiring an additional 2,772 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.88% of the company’s stock.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

Shares of JEF stock opened at $38.22 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.89 billion, a PE ratio of 13.51 and a beta of 1.52. Jefferies Financial Group has a 52-week low of $38.17 and a 52-week high of $71.04. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $57.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $58.99. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 7th. The financial services provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $2.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.01 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.91 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Jefferies Financial Group will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 17th were given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.2%. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.54%.

About Jefferies Financial Group

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.