Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.06 EPS

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The financial services provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.97 by ($0.06), Briefing.com reports. Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 9.27% and a return on equity of 6.40%. The firm had revenue of $1.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.83 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.30 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 63.4% on a year-over-year basis.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

JEF stock opened at $80.11 on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group has a 1 year low of $38.77 and a 1 year high of $82.68. The company has a market cap of $16.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.24 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $76.48 and its 200-day moving average price is $64.47.

Jefferies Financial Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th 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 2.00%. This is an increase from Jefferies Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 59.83%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on JEF. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $67.00 target price for the company. Oppenheimer cut their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $82.00 to $81.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $67.00 to $97.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Richard B. Handler sold 400,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.26, for a total value of $28,904,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 14,971,288 shares in the company, valued at $1,081,825,270.88. The trade was a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, President Brian P. Friedman sold 393,397 shares of Jefferies Financial Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.17, for a total value of $28,391,461.49. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 560,507 shares in the company, valued at $40,451,790.19. This trade represents a 41.24 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,086,923 shares of company stock worth $76,381,151. Company insiders own 20.40% of the company’s stock.

Jefferies Financial Group Company 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.