Mattson Financial Services LLC Purchases 18,071 Shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF

Mattson Financial Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 297.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 24,150 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 18,071 shares during the period. Mattson Financial Services LLC’s holdings in Jefferies Financial Group were worth $1,497,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the 4th quarter valued at $145,584,000. Eminence Capital LP raised its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 129.7% in the third quarter. Eminence Capital LP now owns 3,358,561 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $219,717,000 after buying an additional 1,896,547 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp boosted its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 2,644.1% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 839,716 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $52,037,000 after buying an additional 809,115 shares during the period. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new position in Jefferies Financial Group during the third quarter worth about $49,783,000. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new position in Jefferies Financial Group during the second quarter worth about $32,395,000. 60.88% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

JEF has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Jefferies Financial Group from $42.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Loop Capital set a $60.00 target price on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research note on Monday. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $76.00 to $59.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Jefferies Financial Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $60.75.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

Shares of Jefferies Financial Group stock opened at $59.66 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.20 billion, a PE ratio of 20.16 and a beta of 1.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $35.53 and a 12 month high of $71.04. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $50.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $53.08.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, March 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by ($0.19). Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 7.83% and a net margin of 6.61%.The firm had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.02 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.57 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 26.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 3.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 18th were paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 18th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio is 54.05%.

Jefferies Financial Group Company Profile

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.