Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $1.98 Million in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 47,900 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,977,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in JEF. Bison Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the fourth quarter worth $224,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group in the second quarter valued at about $3,325,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 159.3% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 892 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 548 shares during the period. Amundi increased its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 8.6% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 226,025 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $12,798,000 after acquiring an additional 17,935 shares during the period. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 11.8% during the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 25,970 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,420,000 after acquiring an additional 2,751 shares during the period. 60.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

JEF stock opened at $50.17 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $53.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $53.07. The stock has a market cap of $10.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.01 and a beta of 1.54. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $35.53 and a 1 year high of $71.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 1.04.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, June 24th. The financial services provider reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.16 by ($0.14). The company had revenue of $2.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.30 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 7.58% and a return on equity of 9.23%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 35.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.40 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 3.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, June 24th that permits the company to buyback $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to reacquire up to 2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Jefferies Financial Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 28th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 18th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 18th. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.69%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $67.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 25th. Oppenheimer dropped their price target on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $87.00 to $83.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Monday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.62.

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.