Covea Finance Buys Shares of 175,600 Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF

Covea Finance bought a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 175,600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $11,488,000. Covea Finance owned about 0.09% of Jefferies Financial Group at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. CWM LLC boosted its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 24.5% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 9,807 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $642,000 after acquiring an additional 1,932 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 120.9% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 21,861 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,430,000 after purchasing an additional 11,963 shares in the last quarter. Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC bought a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the third quarter worth about $775,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 13.8% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 11,303 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $739,000 after purchasing an additional 1,371 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Shelton Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 5.3% in the third quarter. Shelton Wealth Management LLC now owns 21,390 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,399,000 after buying an additional 1,084 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.88% of the company’s stock.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

JEF stock opened at $63.79 on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $39.28 and a 1 year high of $82.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.92 and a beta of 1.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $57.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.52.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, September 29th. The financial services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $2.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.75 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 7.40% and a return on equity of 7.25%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.75 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 17th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 17th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Jefferies Financial Group’s payout ratio is currently 54.98%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

JEF has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised Jefferies Financial Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, September 20th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $81.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Telsey Advisory Group set a $74.00 target price on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Morgan Stanley set a $78.00 target price on shares of Jefferies Financial Group and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 8th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $72.71.

Jefferies Financial Group 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.