OFI Invest Asset Management Acquires New Position in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 7,581 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $574,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. purchased a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the third quarter valued at approximately $286,476,000. FMR LLC raised its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 782.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,286,958 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $202,312,000 after purchasing an additional 2,914,504 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 7.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,504,513 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $154,153,000 after purchasing an additional 167,270 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 20.6% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 2,014,387 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $123,987,000 after purchasing an additional 344,409 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,645,844 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $129,028,000 after purchasing an additional 47,141 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 60.88% of the company’s stock.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

Shares of JEF stock opened at $56.24 on Monday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $72.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $69.64. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $40.72 and a 52 week high of $82.68. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57. The company has a market cap of $11.59 billion, a PE ratio of 18.87 and a beta of 1.37.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.06). Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 10.57% and a return on equity of 7.92%. The business 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 posted $0.30 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 63.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from Jefferies Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 53.69%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on JEF. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $67.00 to $97.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Oppenheimer cut 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 note on Friday, January 3rd.

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.