Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The financial services provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.06), Briefing.com reports. Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 6.40% and a net margin of 9.27%. The business had revenue of $1.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.83 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.30 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 63.4% compared to the same quarter last year.

Jefferies Financial Group Trading Up 0.7 %

JEF traded up $0.53 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $80.11. 2,021,927 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,948,915. Jefferies Financial Group has a 52 week low of $38.77 and a 52 week high of $82.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $76.17 and a two-hundred day moving average of $64.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.24 and a beta of 1.35.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on JEF. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $67.00 to $97.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. UBS Group assumed coverage on Jefferies Financial Group in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $67.00 target price for the company. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $82.00 to $81.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 3rd.

Insider Transactions at Jefferies Financial Group

In related news, Director Robert D. Beyer sold 46,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.07, for a total transaction of $2,960,034.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 100,375 shares in the company, valued at $6,431,026.25. The trade was a 31.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Richard B. Handler sold 400,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.26, for a total transaction of $28,904,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 14,971,288 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,081,825,270.88. This trade represents a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 1,286,923 shares of company stock worth $88,999,151. 20.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.