Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The financial services provider reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.88 by ($0.28), Zacks reports. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.93 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 7.92% and a net margin of 10.57%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.87 EPS.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

JEF opened at $54.42 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.07. Jefferies Financial Group has a 1 year low of $40.72 and a 1 year high of $82.68. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $67.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $69.41. The firm has a market cap of $11.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.26 and a beta of 1.37.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 19th. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.69%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

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.