Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.40

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 8th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.40 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is a boost from Jefferies Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35.

Jefferies Financial Group has raised its dividend payment by an average of 13.0% per year over the last three years. Jefferies Financial Group has a dividend payout ratio of 23.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Jefferies Financial Group to earn $4.79 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 29.2%.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:JEF opened at $80.11 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53. Jefferies Financial Group has a fifty-two week low of $38.77 and a fifty-two week high of $82.68. The stock has a market cap of $16.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.24 and a beta of 1.35. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $76.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $64.58.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $1.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.83 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 9.27% and a return on equity of 6.40%. Jefferies Financial Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 63.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.30 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Jefferies Financial Group will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

JEF has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective 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 started coverage on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $67.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $67.00 to $97.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Jefferies Financial Group news, CEO Richard B. Handler sold 400,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was 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 directly owns 14,971,288 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,081,825,270.88. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, President Brian P. Friedman sold 393,397 shares of Jefferies Financial Group stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the president now owns 560,507 shares in the company, valued at $40,451,790.19. This trade represents a 41.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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.