Connective Capital Management LLC Sells 24,334 Shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF

Connective Capital Management LLC reduced its stake in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 86.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,820 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 24,334 shares during the period. Connective Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Jefferies Financial Group were worth $237,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Alberta Investment Management Corp bought a new position in Jefferies Financial Group in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,574,000. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 593.9% in the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 185,791 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $11,513,000 after buying an additional 159,016 shares in the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the fourth quarter worth $269,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 36,347 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,252,000 after buying an additional 2,772 shares in the last quarter. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 413.3% during the fourth quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 21,870 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,355,000 after buying an additional 17,609 shares in the last quarter. 60.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on JEF. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Jefferies Financial Group from $42.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Zacks Research raised Jefferies Financial Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Jefferies Financial Group from $72.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Loop Capital set a $60.00 target price on Jefferies Financial Group in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Jefferies Financial Group from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.38.

Jefferies Financial Group Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of NYSE JEF opened at $62.24 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $52.03 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $53.26. The stock has a market cap of $12.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.03 and a beta of 1.54. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $35.53 and a 52-week high of $71.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by ($0.19). Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 7.83% and a net margin of 6.61%.The business had revenue of $2.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.57 EPS. Jefferies Financial Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 3.94 EPS for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Investors of record on Monday, May 18th were 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 was Monday, May 18th. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.05%.

Jefferies Financial Group 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.