VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Takes Position in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new position in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 37,750 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,339,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Salomon & Ludwin LLC grew its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 75.0% in the 4th quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 413 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 177 shares in the last quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in Jefferies Financial Group in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Nvwm LLC bought a new position in Jefferies Financial Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Jefferies Financial Group in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, First Horizon Corp grew its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 68.1% in the 4th quarter. First Horizon Corp now owns 622 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 252 shares in the last quarter. 60.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on JEF. Morgan Stanley lowered Jefferies Financial Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $49.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, March 9th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Oppenheimer cut their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $97.00 to $74.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 13th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $68.00 to $42.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $76.00 to $59.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $58.14.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

JEF opened at $52.24 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $44.29 and a 200-day moving average of $53.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.65 and a beta of 1.53. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $35.53 and a 12-month high of $71.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, March 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by ($0.19). The business had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.02 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 6.61% and a return on equity of 7.83%. Jefferies Financial Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.57 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 3.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 18th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 18th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.05%.

About Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group Inc is a diversified financial services company that provides a range of investment banking, capital markets and asset management services to corporations, governments and institutional investors worldwide. Through its core platform, Jefferies offers advisory services for mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity underwriting, restructuring and recapitalization. The firm also operates a global sales and trading business covering equities, fixed income and foreign exchange products, complemented by equity research and macroeconomic analysis.

In addition to its capital markets franchise, Jefferies maintains a growing asset management division that delivers customized investment solutions across public and private markets.