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

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) released its earnings results on Wednesday. The financial services provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.06), Briefing.com reports. Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 6.40% and a net margin of 9.27%. 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 business earned $0.30 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 63.4% compared to the same quarter last year.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

NYSE JEF traded up $0.53 on Wednesday, hitting $80.11. The stock had a trading volume of 2,021,927 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,948,915. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $76.17 and a 200-day moving average of $64.36. The company has a market capitalization of $16.46 billion, a price-to-earnings 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 52-week low of $38.77 and a 52-week high of $82.68.

Insider Transactions at Jefferies Financial Group

In other news, Director Robert D. Beyer sold 46,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.07, for a total transaction of $2,960,034.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 100,375 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,431,026.25. This trade represents a 31.52 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, President Brian P. Friedman sold 393,397 shares of Jefferies Financial Group stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.17, for a total transaction of $28,391,461.49. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 560,507 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,451,790.19. This represents a 41.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,286,923 shares of company stock valued at $88,999,151. 20.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.