Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF is Eminence Capital LP’s 10th Largest Position

Eminence Capital LP increased its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 13.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,812,615 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 454,054 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group makes up about 3.7% of Eminence Capital LP’s holdings, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Eminence Capital LP owned approximately 1.85% of Jefferies Financial Group worth $236,268,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Salomon & Ludwin LLC grew its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 75.0% during the fourth quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 413 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 177 shares during the last quarter. Smithfield Trust Co bought a new position in Jefferies Financial Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Elyxium Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Jefferies Financial Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Nvwm LLC purchased a new position in Jefferies Financial Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Ramirez Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. 60.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

Jefferies Financial Group stock opened at $61.90 on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $35.53 and a fifty-two week high of $71.04. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $51.62 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $53.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04. The stock has a market cap of $12.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.91 and a beta of 1.54.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, March 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by ($0.19). The firm had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.02 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 6.61% and a return on equity of 7.83%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.57 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 18th were given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 18th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.05%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $72.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Friday, June 12th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Jefferies Financial Group from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 9th. Loop Capital set a $60.00 price objective on Jefferies Financial Group in a report on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Jefferies Financial Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.38.

About Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group Inc is a diversified financial services company that provides a range of investment banking, capital markets and asset management services to corporations, governments and institutional investors worldwide. Through its core platform, Jefferies offers advisory services for mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity underwriting, restructuring and recapitalization. The firm also operates a global sales and trading business covering equities, fixed income and foreign exchange products, complemented by equity research and macroeconomic analysis.

In addition to its capital markets franchise, Jefferies maintains a growing asset management division that delivers customized investment solutions across public and private markets.