Rhumbline Advisers Sells 6,655 Shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

Rhumbline Advisers reduced its stake in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 1.4% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 455,232 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 6,655 shares during the quarter. Rhumbline Advisers’ holdings in Jefferies Financial Group were worth $24,387,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of JEF. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC purchased a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group in the 4th quarter worth $326,000. Caprock Group LLC increased its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 3,844 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $301,000 after buying an additional 165 shares in the last quarter. Calamos Advisors LLC increased its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 28.8% in the 4th quarter. Calamos Advisors LLC now owns 13,818 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,083,000 after buying an additional 3,091 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 45.5% in the 4th quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 5,143 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $403,000 after buying an additional 1,608 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Silver Oak Securities Incorporated purchased a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group in the 4th quarter worth $344,000. 60.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer lowered Jefferies Financial Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Wall Street Zen lowered Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Morgan Stanley lowered Jefferies Financial Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $75.00 to $41.00 in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. One investment 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. According to data from MarketBeat, Jefferies Financial Group currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.75.

Jefferies Financial Group Trading Up 3.9%

Shares of Jefferies Financial Group stock opened at $50.97 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $10.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.10 and a beta of 1.45. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $47.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $63.40. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $39.28 and a twelve month high of $82.68.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by ($0.28). The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.93 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 10.57% and a return on equity of 7.92%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.87 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 29th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th were given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 19th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.14%. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 55.36%.

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.