Keystone Investors PTE Ltd. Invests $243,000 in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

Keystone Investors PTE Ltd. purchased a new position in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 3,102 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $243,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of JEF. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. purchased a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $286,476,000. FMR LLC boosted its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 782.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,286,958 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $202,312,000 after buying an additional 2,914,504 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 157.2% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 802,366 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $62,905,000 after buying an additional 490,389 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Jefferies Financial Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $35,122,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 95.7% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 780,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $48,063,000 after buying an additional 381,893 shares in the last quarter. 60.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on JEF. Oppenheimer cut shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $75.00 price target on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $92.00 to $81.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 13th.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

NYSE JEF opened at $62.22 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57. The stock has a market cap of $12.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.88 and a beta of 1.37. The business has a fifty day moving average of $67.88 and a 200-day moving average of $69.54. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $40.72 and a fifty-two week high of $82.68.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last released its earnings results 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 10.57% and a return on equity of 7.92%. The business had revenue of $1.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.83 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.30 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 63.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This is a positive change from Jefferies Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.57%. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 53.69%.

Jefferies Financial Group 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.