Short Interest in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) Declines By 17.1%

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) saw a large decline in short interest in February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,820,000 shares, a decline of 17.1% from the January 31st total of 3,400,000 shares. Currently, 1.7% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,550,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.8 days.

Institutional Trading of Jefferies Financial Group

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. purchased a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $286,476,000. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the 4th quarter worth about $772,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,504,513 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $154,153,000 after buying an additional 167,270 shares during the last quarter. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,718,000. Finally, Covenant Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Jefferies Financial Group in the third quarter worth approximately $3,337,000. 60.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Jefferies Financial Group Trading Down 2.4 %

JEF stock traded down $1.38 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $56.37. 1,384,170 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,373,690. Jefferies Financial Group has a 52-week low of $40.72 and a 52-week high of $82.68. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $73.36 and its 200-day moving average is $69.56. The company has a market cap of $11.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.91 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.97 by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $1.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.83 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 10.57% and a return on equity of 7.92%. Jefferies Financial Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 63.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.30 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Jefferies Financial Group will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.84%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This is a boost from Jefferies Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. Jefferies Financial Group’s payout ratio is 53.69%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on JEF. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $82.00 to $81.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $67.00 to $97.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th.

Jefferies Financial Group Company 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.