California State Teachers Retirement System Has $7.41 Million Holdings in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF

California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 22.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 179,421 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 32,750 shares during the quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Jefferies Financial Group were worth $7,405,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in JEF. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 808.6% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 36,498 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,506,000 after purchasing an additional 32,481 shares during the period. SummitTX Capital L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the first quarter worth approximately $1,187,000. Endure Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,190,000. Waverly Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 25.8% in the first quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 10,709 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $442,000 after acquiring an additional 2,199 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP raised its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 360.1% during the 1st quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 124,782 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,150,000 after purchasing an additional 97,664 shares during the last quarter. 60.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Jefferies Financial Group from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Loop Capital set a $60.00 target price on Jefferies Financial Group in a research note on Monday, June 8th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $67.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $87.00 to $83.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.62.

Jefferies Financial Group Trading Up 0.0%

NYSE:JEF opened at $55.70 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $55.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $51.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.56 and a beta of 1.54. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $35.53 and a 1-year high of $71.04. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, June 24th. The financial services provider reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.16 by ($0.14). Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 9.23% and a net margin of 7.58%.The business had revenue of $2.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.40 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 35.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 28th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 18th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 18th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.69%.

Jefferies Financial Group declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, June 24th that allows the company to buyback $250.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to repurchase up to 2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Jefferies Financial Group Company Profile

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.