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

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

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on JEF. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $75.00 price objective on Jefferies Financial Group in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

Shares of JEF stock opened at $52.17 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.76 billion, a PE ratio of 17.51 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $66.53 and a 200-day moving average price of $69.47. Jefferies Financial Group has a 52 week low of $40.72 and a 52 week 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.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last posted its earnings results 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.93 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 down 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.87 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Jefferies Financial Group will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 29th. Shareholders 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 yield of 3.07%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 19th. Jefferies Financial Group’s payout ratio is 53.69%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the 4th quarter valued at $724,971,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in 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 worth $469,518,000 after buying an additional 3,677,233 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in 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 valued at $421,882,000 after acquiring an additional 2,094,191 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the third quarter worth about $286,476,000. Institutional investors own 60.88% of the company’s stock.

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.