Quarry LP Buys Shares of 1,140 Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

Quarry LP bought a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 1,140 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $70,000.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group in the second quarter valued at $25,000. Eastern Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the third quarter valued at $42,000. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the second quarter valued at $48,000. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV boosted its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 68.1% during the third quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 1,071 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $66,000 after acquiring an additional 434 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Huntington National Bank boosted its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 14,055.6% during the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,274 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $78,000 after acquiring an additional 1,265 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on JEF. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $73.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group began coverage on Jefferies Financial Group in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $67.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $59.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

NYSE JEF opened at $78.12 on Monday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $69.68 and its 200 day moving average price is $59.15. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.10 and a twelve month high of $80.53. The company has a market capitalization of $16.05 billion, a PE ratio of 33.38 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, September 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.78 by ($0.03). Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 6.40% and a net margin of 9.27%. The business had revenue of $1.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.32 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 42.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th were given a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 18th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.79%. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 59.83%.

Insider Transactions at Jefferies Financial Group

In other news, President Brian P. Friedman sold 200,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.09, for a total value of $12,618,000.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 604,606 shares in the company, valued at $38,144,592.54. This trade represents a 24.86 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Richard B. Handler sold 400,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.26, for a total value of $28,904,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 14,971,288 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,081,825,270.88. This trade represents a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,286,923 shares of company stock worth $88,999,151 in the last three months. 20.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.