Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.40 (NYSE:JEF)

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, March 26th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be given a dividend of 0.40 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, May 29th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.94%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 19th.

Jefferies Financial Group has raised its dividend by an average of 13.0% per year over the last three years. Jefferies Financial Group has a dividend payout ratio of 28.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Jefferies Financial Group to earn $6.16 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 26.0%.

Jefferies Financial Group Trading Down 9.7 %

Jefferies Financial Group stock opened at $54.42 on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group has a one year low of $40.72 and a one year high of $82.68. The business’s fifty day moving average is $67.00 and its 200 day moving average is $69.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.22 billion, a PE ratio of 18.26 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.07.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by ($0.28). The company 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 business’s revenue was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.87 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Jefferies Financial Group will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Jefferies Financial Group from $81.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $75.00 target price on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th.

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.