Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) Shares Sold by QRG Capital Management Inc.

QRG Capital Management Inc. lessened its position in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 7.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,098 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,726 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Jefferies Financial Group were worth $1,237,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $724,971,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 159.1% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,988,746 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $469,518,000 after purchasing an additional 3,677,233 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 63.7% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,381,149 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $421,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,094,191 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 27.1% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,293,767 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $415,031,000 after purchasing an additional 1,127,335 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 57.4% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,941,692 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $309,029,000 after purchasing an additional 1,437,179 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

JEF has been the topic of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $75.00 to $41.00 in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Jefferies Financial Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.75.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of NYSE:JEF opened at $52.94 on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $39.28 and a 12 month high of $82.68. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.68. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $49.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $61.52. The firm has a market cap of $10.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.32 and a beta of 1.45.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.88 by ($0.28). Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 9.31% and a return on equity of 7.26%. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.93 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.87 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 29th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.02%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 19th. Jefferies Financial Group’s payout ratio is 55.36%.

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.