Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) Declares Dividend Increase – $0.40 Per Share

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 8th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of 0.40 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.00%. This is an increase from Jefferies Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35.

Jefferies Financial Group has increased its dividend payment by an average of 26.0% annually over the last three years. Jefferies Financial Group has a payout ratio of 23.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Jefferies Financial Group to earn $4.79 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 29.2%.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

JEF opened at $80.11 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.24 and a beta of 1.35. Jefferies Financial Group has a fifty-two week low of $38.77 and a fifty-two week high of $82.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03. The company has a fifty day moving average of $76.48 and a 200 day moving average of $64.47.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.97 by ($0.06). Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 9.27% and a return on equity of 6.40%. The business had revenue of $1.96 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.83 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.30 EPS. Jefferies Financial Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 63.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Jefferies Financial Group will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

JEF has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $67.00 price objective for the company. Oppenheimer dropped their target price on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $82.00 to $81.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Jefferies Financial Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $67.00 to $97.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, President Brian P. Friedman sold 393,397 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.17, for a total value of $28,391,461.49. Following the sale, the president now owns 560,507 shares in the company, valued at $40,451,790.19. This represents a 41.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Richard B. Handler sold 400,000 shares of Jefferies Financial Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.26, for a total value of $28,904,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 14,971,288 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,081,825,270.88. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,086,923 shares of company stock worth $76,381,151 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 20.40% 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.