Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (JEF) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.40 on November 26th

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 17th will be paid a dividend of 0.40 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, November 26th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 17th.

Jefferies Financial Group has decreased its dividend by an average of 0.1%per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 2 consecutive years. Jefferies Financial Group has a dividend payout ratio of 38.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Jefferies Financial Group to earn $6.16 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 26.0%.

Jefferies Financial Group Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of JEF opened at $55.42 on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group has a one year low of $39.28 and a one year high of $82.68. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $59.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $56.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05. The company has a market capitalization of $11.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.04 and a beta of 1.53.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last announced its earnings results on Monday, September 29th. The financial services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $2.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.75 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 7.25% and a net margin of 7.40%.Jefferies Financial Group’s quarterly revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.75 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Jefferies Financial Group will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on JEF shares. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Capital One Financial set a $55.00 target price on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research note on Friday, October 17th. Telsey Advisory Group set a $74.00 price target on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. Morgan Stanley set a $74.00 price objective on Jefferies Financial Group in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research note on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.83.

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.