Allianz Asset Management GmbH Trims Position in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF

Allianz Asset Management GmbH decreased its position in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 37.4% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 95,580 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 57,092 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH’s holdings in Jefferies Financial Group were worth $6,253,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Bison Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $224,000. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 28.5% during the second quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 6,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $346,000 after buying an additional 1,403 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS increased its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 1.6% during the second quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS now owns 31,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,734,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 15.2% in the second quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 29,345 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,605,000 after acquiring an additional 3,861 shares during the period. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 15.1% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,271 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $179,000 after acquiring an additional 429 shares during the period. 60.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on JEF shares. 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. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a report on Tuesday, December 30th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Jefferies Financial Group from $81.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $84.00 to $74.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $78.00 price objective on Jefferies Financial Group and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $72.71.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

Shares of Jefferies Financial Group stock opened at $60.00 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $12.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.20 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $61.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $60.15. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $39.28 and a 52 week high of $74.74.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 7th. The financial services provider reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.83 by $0.13. Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 6.56% and a return on equity of 7.27%. The firm had revenue of $2.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.01 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.91 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 17th. Jefferies Financial Group’s payout ratio is 56.54%.

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.