Deutsche Bank AG Trims Stock Position in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

Deutsche Bank AG reduced its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 12.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 604,102 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 86,160 shares during the quarter. Deutsche Bank AG’s holdings in Jefferies Financial Group were worth $47,362,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in JEF. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $724,971,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 159.1% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,988,746 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $469,518,000 after buying an additional 3,677,233 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 63.7% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,381,149 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $421,882,000 after buying an additional 2,094,191 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 57.4% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,941,692 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $309,029,000 after buying an additional 1,437,179 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 27.1% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,293,767 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $415,031,000 after buying an additional 1,127,335 shares during the period. 60.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of NYSE:JEF opened at $54.47 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $50.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $65.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.28 and a beta of 1.47. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $39.28 and a 12-month 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.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by ($0.28). Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 10.57% and a return on equity of 7.92%. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.87 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.41 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 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 19th. Jefferies Financial Group’s payout ratio is 55.36%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $75.00 to $41.00 in a research report on Monday, April 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $75.00 target price on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday.

Jefferies Financial Group 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.