Strs Ohio Buys 539,534 Shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

Strs Ohio raised its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 1,126.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 587,412 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 539,534 shares during the period. Strs Ohio’s holdings in Jefferies Financial Group were worth $23,737,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 18,482,896 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $607,163,000 after acquiring an additional 233,844 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 44.6% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 7,152,883 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $234,972,000 after purchasing an additional 2,207,065 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,753,327 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $188,997,000 after purchasing an additional 52,336 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 11.7% during the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 3,662,284 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $121,478,000 after purchasing an additional 382,838 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 201.2% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,328,739 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $109,350,000 after purchasing an additional 2,223,630 shares during the period. 60.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on JEF. StockNews.com cut Jefferies Financial Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Jefferies Financial Group from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.33.

Jefferies Financial Group Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of JEF opened at $41.30 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $42.73 and a 200 day moving average of $38.89. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $28.81 and a fifty-two week high of $47.39. The firm has a market cap of $8.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.85 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 27th. The financial services provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.11. Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 4.41% and a net margin of 5.90%. The company had revenue of $1.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.55 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 3.38 EPS for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Investors of record on Monday, May 20th will be issued a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 17th. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 98.36%.

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.