Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC Trims Stock Holdings in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF

Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC lessened its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 11.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 46,064 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 6,000 shares during the quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC’s holdings in Jefferies Financial Group were worth $2,519,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 30.1% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,126,514 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $274,627,000 after buying an additional 1,184,822 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the first quarter valued at approximately $58,972,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 13.7% during the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 6,808,340 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $364,723,000 after acquiring an additional 819,594 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 9.0% during the second quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 6,990,180 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $388,374,000 after acquiring an additional 578,013 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio acquired a new position in Jefferies Financial Group in the 1st quarter valued at $21,893,000. 60.88% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on JEF shares. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on Jefferies Financial Group from $84.00 to $74.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Capital One Financial set a $55.00 target price on Jefferies Financial Group in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Wall Street Zen raised Jefferies Financial Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 20th. Morgan Stanley set a $74.00 price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Jefferies Financial Group has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $68.83.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

JEF stock opened at $55.28 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $11.40 billion, a PE ratio of 18.99 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $57.86 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $57.05. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $39.28 and a 12-month high of $82.68.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, September 29th. The financial services provider reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.22. Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 7.25% and a net margin of 7.40%.The company had revenue of $2.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.75 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.75 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 17th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 17th. Jefferies Financial Group’s payout ratio is 54.98%.

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.