First Trust Advisors LP Has $7.31 Million Stake in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF

First Trust Advisors LP trimmed its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 70.8% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 177,049 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 428,268 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Jefferies Financial Group were worth $7,307,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. First Wilshire Securities Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. First Wilshire Securities Management Inc. now owns 52,828 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,180,000 after purchasing an additional 655 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. grew its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 6.8% in the 1st quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 8,947 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $369,000 after buying an additional 568 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,666,097 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $110,015,000 after buying an additional 58,585 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 95,294 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,933,000 after buying an additional 349 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank increased its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 306,200 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $12,637,000 after buying an additional 1,200 shares during the period. 60.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on JEF shares. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $42.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 8th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $67.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Oppenheimer cut their target price on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $87.00 to $83.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Loop Capital set a $60.00 price target on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Jefferies Financial Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.62.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

Shares of JEF stock opened at $54.73 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $55.45 and a two-hundred day moving average of $51.79. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $35.53 and a 12 month high of $71.04. The company has a market capitalization of $10.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.29 and a beta of 1.54.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 24th. The financial services provider reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.16 by ($0.14). The firm had revenue of $2.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.30 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 9.23% and a net margin of 7.58%.Jefferies Financial Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.40 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 3.71 EPS for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 28th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 18th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. Jefferies Financial Group’s payout ratio is currently 44.69%.

Jefferies Financial Group declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, June 24th that allows the company to repurchase $250.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to reacquire up to 2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.