Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The financial services provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.06), Briefing.com reports. Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 9.27% and a return on equity of 6.40%. The firm had revenue of $1.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.83 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.30 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 63.4% on a year-over-year basis.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Up 0.7 %

Jefferies Financial Group stock opened at $80.11 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $76.80 and a 200-day simple moving average of $64.58. The company has a market capitalization of $16.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.24 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03. Jefferies Financial Group has a fifty-two week low of $38.77 and a fifty-two week high of $82.68.

Jefferies Financial Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.00%. This is a boost from Jefferies Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. Jefferies Financial Group’s payout ratio is 59.83%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on JEF. Oppenheimer dropped their target price on Jefferies Financial Group from $82.00 to $81.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 3rd. UBS Group initiated coverage on Jefferies Financial Group in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $67.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Jefferies Financial Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $67.00 to $97.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, President Brian P. Friedman sold 393,397 shares of Jefferies Financial Group stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.17, for a total value of $28,391,461.49. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 560,507 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,451,790.19. The trade was a 41.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Richard B. Handler sold 400,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.26, for a total transaction of $28,904,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 14,971,288 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,081,825,270.88. This trade represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,086,923 shares of company stock worth $76,381,151 in the last quarter. 20.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Jefferies Financial Group Company 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.