Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) Price Target Cut to $75.00 by Analysts at Morgan Stanley

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) had its price objective trimmed by Morgan Stanley from $81.00 to $75.00 in a report released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer cut shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $75.00 price target on Jefferies Financial Group in a report on Wednesday, March 5th.

Jefferies Financial Group Trading Down 9.7 %

JEF opened at $54.42 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $67.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $69.41. 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 12 month low of $40.72 and a 12 month high of $82.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.26 and a beta of 1.37.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by ($0.28). The company had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.93 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 7.92% and a net margin of 10.57%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.87 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Jefferies Financial Group will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 29th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th will be given 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 53.69%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Jefferies Financial Group

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $724,971,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 3,677,233 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 2,094,191 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,127,335 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. acquired a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group in the 3rd 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.