US Bancorp DE Boosts Position in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

US Bancorp DE grew its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF – Get Rating) by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 27,053 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,613 shares during the quarter. US Bancorp DE’s holdings in Jefferies Financial Group were worth $798,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Denali Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 80.0% during the second quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 900 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 155.2% during the second quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,026 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 624 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 64.5% during the second quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,189 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 466 shares during the period. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 332.2% during the third quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,556 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 1,196 shares during the period. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 3,325.5% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,884 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 1,829 shares during the period. 66.04% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer dropped their price target on Jefferies Financial Group to $46.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 5th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Jefferies Financial Group in a research report on Wednesday, October 12th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Jefferies Financial Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, January 10th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered Jefferies Financial Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $38.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 21st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $37.75.

Jefferies Financial Group Trading Down 1.3 %

Jefferies Financial Group stock opened at $37.47 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.11, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $36.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $33.70. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $25.88 and a 12 month high of $40.80. The company has a market capitalization of $8.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.37 and a beta of 1.40.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Monday, January 9th. The financial services provider reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.57. Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 8.32% and a net margin of 12.90%. The business had revenue of $1.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.25 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.36 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 20.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 3.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 13th will be issued a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.20%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 10th. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 39.60%.

Insider Activity

In other news, President Brian P. Friedman sold 500,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.85, for a total transaction of $16,425,000.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 6,722,213 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $220,824,697.05. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 17.90% of the company’s stock.

Jefferies Financial Group Profile

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Jefferies Financial Group, Inc is a holding company, which engages in the provision of financial services. It operates through the following segments: Investment Banking, Capital Markets, and Asset Management, Merchant Banking, and Corporate. The Investment Banking, Capital Markets, and Asset Management segment consists of investments in Jefferies Group.