Williamson Legacy Group LLC Buys New Shares in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

Williamson Legacy Group LLC bought a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 3,229 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $253,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. purchased a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group in the third quarter valued at approximately $286,476,000. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $772,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 7.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,504,513 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $154,153,000 after purchasing an additional 167,270 shares during the period. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC purchased a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,718,000. Finally, Covenant Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group during the third quarter worth approximately $3,337,000. 60.88% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $82.00 to $81.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $67.00 to $97.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

JEF opened at $66.17 on Friday. 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 52-week low of $40.72 and a 52-week high of $82.68. The company has a 50 day moving average of $74.36 and a two-hundred day moving average of $69.37. The company has a market cap of $13.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.20 and a beta of 1.34.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.06). Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 7.92% and a net margin of 10.57%. The firm had revenue of $1.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.83 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.30 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 63.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This is a boost from Jefferies Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Jefferies Financial Group’s payout ratio is presently 53.69%.

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.