Simmons Bank Buys 351 Shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

Simmons Bank raised its stake in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 4.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,668 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 351 shares during the quarter. Simmons Bank’s holdings in Jefferies Financial Group were worth $680,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. bought a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group in the third quarter worth $286,476,000. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 782.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,286,958 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $202,312,000 after purchasing an additional 2,914,504 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of 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 worth $154,153,000 after purchasing an additional 167,270 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 20.6% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 2,014,387 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $123,987,000 after purchasing an additional 344,409 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,645,844 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $129,028,000 after purchasing an additional 47,141 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

JEF has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley raised 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 report on Monday, December 9th. Oppenheimer cut their price objective on shares of 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.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

Shares of JEF opened at $65.80 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $13.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.08 and a beta of 1.34. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $40.72 and a 1-year high of $82.68. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $74.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $69.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57.

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

Jefferies Financial Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors 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 yield of 2.43%. This is an increase from Jefferies Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. Jefferies Financial Group’s payout ratio is presently 53.69%.

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.