Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) Shares Bought by Barclays PLC

Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF - Free Report) by 6.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,134,431 shares of the financial services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 120,044 shares during the period. Barclays PLC owned about 1.04% of Jefferies Financial Group worth $167,340,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of JEF. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the fourth quarter worth $724,971,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 159.1% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,988,746 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $469,518,000 after buying an additional 3,677,233 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 63.7% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,381,149 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $421,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,094,191 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 27.1% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,293,767 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $415,031,000 after buying an additional 1,127,335 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 57.4% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,941,692 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $309,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,437,179 shares during the period. 60.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on JEF. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. StockNews.com downgraded Jefferies Financial Group from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Morgan Stanley cut Jefferies Financial Group from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and cut their price target for the stock from $75.00 to $41.00 in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $75.00 price target on Jefferies Financial Group in a report on Wednesday, March 5th.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

JEF stock traded up $0.17 on Friday, reaching $42.77. 1,346,095 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,580,027. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $39.28 and a twelve month high of $82.68. 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 fifty day moving average of $56.31 and a 200-day moving average of $67.57. The firm has a market cap of $8.82 billion, a PE ratio of 14.35 and a beta of 1.29.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.88 by ($0.28). Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 10.57% and a return on equity of 7.92%. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.87 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 19th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.74%. Jefferies Financial Group's payout ratio is 55.36%.

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.