Jefferies Financial Group (JEF) Competitors

Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) and Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, dividends, community ranking, earnings, media sentiment and risk.

Is ARES or JEF a better dividend stock?

Ares Management pays an annual dividend of $3.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Jefferies Financial Group pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Ares Management pays out 171.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Jefferies Financial Group pays out 59.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Which has better earnings and valuation, ARES or JEF?

Ares Management has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Jefferies Financial Group. Jefferies Financial Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ares Management, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ares Management	$3.63B	14.82	$474.33M	$2.17	79.21
Jefferies Financial Group	$4.70B	3.28	$277.69M	$2.34	32.03

Which has more risk & volatility, ARES or JEF?

Ares Management has a beta of 1.2, suggesting that its stock price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Jefferies Financial Group has a beta of 1.31, suggesting that its stock price is 31% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts rate ARES or JEF?

Ares Management presently has a consensus target price of $166.36, indicating a potential downside of 3.22%. Jefferies Financial Group has a consensus target price of $71.33, indicating a potential downside of 4.83%. Given Ares Management's higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Ares Management is more favorable than Jefferies Financial Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ares Management	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Jefferies Financial Group	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67

Is ARES or JEF more profitable?

Ares Management has a net margin of 12.51% compared to Jefferies Financial Group's net margin of 9.27%. Ares Management's return on equity of 19.89% beat Jefferies Financial Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ares Management	12.51%	19.89%	3.95%
Jefferies Financial Group	9.27%	6.40%	1.05%

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of ARES or JEF?

50.0% of Ares Management shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 60.9% of Jefferies Financial Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 41.9% of Ares Management shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 20.4% of Jefferies Financial Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media prefer ARES or JEF?

In the previous week, Jefferies Financial Group had 1 more articles in the media than Ares Management. MarketBeat recorded 18 mentions for Jefferies Financial Group and 17 mentions for Ares Management. Jefferies Financial Group's average media sentiment score of 0.80 beat Ares Management's score of 0.03 indicating that Jefferies Financial Group is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Ares Management	7 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Jefferies Financial Group	7 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer ARES or JEF?

Ares Management received 49 more outperform votes than Jefferies Financial Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 68.91% of users gave Ares Management an outperform vote while only 53.48% of users gave Jefferies Financial Group an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Ares Management	Outperform Votes 594 68.91%	Underperform Votes 268 31.09%
Jefferies Financial Group	Outperform Votes 545 53.48%	Underperform Votes 474 46.52%

Summary

Ares Management beats Jefferies Financial Group on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.