Arrowpoint Investment Partners Singapore Pte. Ltd. Makes New Investment in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

Arrowpoint Investment Partners Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 8,017 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $629,000.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in JEF. Barclays PLC increased its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 20.6% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 2,014,387 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $123,987,000 after buying an additional 344,409 shares in the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 21.4% in the fourth quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 4,509 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $354,000 after acquiring an additional 794 shares during the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the fourth quarter valued at $423,000. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. raised its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 12,202 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $956,000 after purchasing an additional 361 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atomi Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,012 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $550,000 after purchasing an additional 352 shares in the last quarter. 60.88% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on JEF. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $75.00 to $41.00 in a research note on Monday, April 7th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. Oppenheimer cut Jefferies Financial Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Jefferies Financial Group from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.75.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:JEF opened at $50.62 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.07. The firm has a market cap of $10.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.99 and a beta of 1.47. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $49.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $65.22. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $39.28 and a fifty-two week high of $82.68.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last announced 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). The company had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.93 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 7.92% and a net margin of 10.57%. The business’s revenue was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.87 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 19th. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 55.36%.

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.