Oppenheimer Downgrades Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) to Market Perform

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) was downgraded by stock analysts at Oppenheimer from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $75.00 price objective on Jefferies Financial Group in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Jefferies Financial Group from $92.00 to $81.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 13th.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

Shares of JEF stock opened at $59.11 on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group has a fifty-two week low of $40.72 and a fifty-two week high of $82.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.84 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.07. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $68.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $69.35.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last released its quarterly earnings data 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). The company had revenue of $1.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.83 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 7.92% and a net margin of 10.57%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 63.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.30 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Jefferies Financial Group will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Jefferies Financial Group during the fourth quarter worth $724,971,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 159.1% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,988,746 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $469,518,000 after purchasing an additional 3,677,233 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 63.7% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,381,149 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $421,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,094,191 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 27.1% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,293,767 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $415,031,000 after purchasing an additional 1,127,335 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. acquired a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group in the third quarter valued at $286,476,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.88% of the company’s stock.

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.