Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday.

Separately, Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $43.33.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

JEF stock traded up $0.10 during trading on Friday, hitting $43.56. The company had a trading volume of 727,174 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,068,454. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.70 and a beta of 1.37. The business has a 50 day moving average of $43.13 and a 200 day moving average of $39.30. Jefferies Financial Group has a fifty-two week low of $28.81 and a fifty-two week high of $47.39. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 27th. The financial services provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $1.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.52 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 5.90% and a return on equity of 4.41%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 35.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.55 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Jefferies Financial Group will post 3.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Jefferies Financial Group news, CEO Richard B. Handler sold 1,500,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.50, for a total transaction of $65,250,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 15,314,150 shares in the company, valued at approximately $666,165,525. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 20.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Jefferies Financial Group

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of JEF. Naples Money Management LLC acquired a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Allworth Financial LP increased its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 56.6% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,126 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares during the period. Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $47,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $71,000. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp increased its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 16.1% in the 3rd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 2,573 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $94,000 after purchasing an additional 356 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.88% of the company’s stock.

About Jefferies Financial Group

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.