Richard B. Handler Sells 1,500,000 Shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) Stock

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) CEO Richard B. Handler sold 1,500,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.50, for a total transaction of $65,250,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 15,314,150 shares in the company, valued at $666,165,525. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Jefferies Financial Group Trading Down 2.6 %

Jefferies Financial Group stock opened at $43.42 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The company has a market capitalization of $9.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.59 and a beta of 1.37. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a one year low of $28.81 and a one year high of $47.39. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $43.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $39.24.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, March 27th. The financial services provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.11. Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 5.90% and a return on equity of 4.41%. The firm had revenue of $1.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.52 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.55 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 35.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 3.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 17th. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 98.36%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Jefferies Financial Group

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 88.9% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 6,113,391 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $269,601,000 after acquiring an additional 2,876,529 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,405,866 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $178,046,000 after acquiring an additional 51,633 shares during the period. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. boosted its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 18.5% during the fourth quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. now owns 3,272,244 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $132,231,000 after acquiring an additional 510,125 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group during the fourth quarter valued at about $88,852,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 19.2% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,507,771 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $60,929,000 after buying an additional 242,769 shares during the period. 60.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Jefferies Financial Group has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.33.

About Jefferies Financial Group

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.