Jefferies Financial Group Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:JEF)

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders acquired 6,010 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 784% compared to the average daily volume of 680 call options.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

Jefferies Financial Group stock opened at $43.22 on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group has a 12-month low of $28.81 and a 12-month high of $47.39. The stock has a market cap of $9.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.43 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $43.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 27th. The financial services provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.11. Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 5.90% and a return on equity of 4.41%. The firm had revenue of $1.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.52 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.55 earnings per share. Jefferies Financial Group’s revenue was up 35.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Jefferies Financial Group will post 3.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 17th. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 98.36%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on JEF shares. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Richard B. Handler sold 1,500,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.50, for a total value of $65,250,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 15,314,150 shares in the company, valued at $666,165,525. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 20.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 88.9% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 6,113,391 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $269,601,000 after buying an additional 2,876,529 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,405,866 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $178,046,000 after buying an additional 51,633 shares during the period. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. boosted its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 18.5% during the fourth quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. now owns 3,272,244 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $132,231,000 after buying an additional 510,125 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Jefferies Financial Group during the fourth quarter worth about $88,852,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 13.2% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,707,433 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $75,298,000 after buying an additional 199,662 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 60.88% of the company’s stock.

Jefferies Financial Group Company Profile

Jefferies Financial Group Inc operates as an investment banking and capital markets firm in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific. The company operates in two segments, Investment Banking and Capital Markets, and Asset Management. It provides investment banking, advisory services with respect to mergers or acquisitions, debt financing, restructurings or recapitalizations, and private capital advisory transactions; underwriting and placement services related to corporate debt, municipal bonds, mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities, equity and equity-linked securities, and loan syndication services; and corporate lending services.