Geode Capital Management LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF

Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,942,554 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 24,171 shares during the quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC owned 1.42% of Jefferies Financial Group worth $182,390,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in JEF. Eminence Capital LP increased 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 valued at $219,717,000 after buying an additional 1,896,547 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp increased its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 2,644.1% in 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 in the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group in the third quarter valued at $49,783,000. Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group in the second quarter valued at $32,395,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 245.2% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 651,216 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $42,603,000 after buying an additional 462,546 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 60.88% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $76.00 to $59.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $97.00 to $74.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $47.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Morgan Stanley lowered Jefferies Financial Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $49.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, March 9th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Jefferies Financial Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $58.14.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

NYSE:JEF opened at $52.85 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. The company has a market cap of $10.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.85 and a beta of 1.54. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $35.53 and a fifty-two week high of $71.04. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $47.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $52.93.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last posted its quarterly 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). The company had revenue of $2.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.02 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 7.83% and a net margin of 6.61%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.57 EPS. Analysts expect that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 3.79 EPS for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Announces Dividend

The company 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. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 18th. Jefferies Financial Group’s payout ratio is currently 54.05%.

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.