Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Makes New Investment in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 47,300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,911,000.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 76.9% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 3,236,862 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $130,802,000 after acquiring an additional 1,406,920 shares in the last quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc bought a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the fourth quarter worth $2,435,000. Hosking Partners LLP increased its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 11.5% during the third quarter. Hosking Partners LLP now owns 842,947 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $30,877,000 after acquiring an additional 86,898 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates increased its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 49.1% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 234,154 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,462,000 after acquiring an additional 77,131 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Algert Global LLC increased its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 26.4% during the third quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 120,035 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,397,000 after acquiring an additional 25,040 shares in the last quarter. 60.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on JEF shares. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 13th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Jefferies Financial Group has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $43.33.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Up 0.8 %

Jefferies Financial Group stock opened at $41.51 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $8.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.02 and a beta of 1.37. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $28.81 and a 1-year high of $47.39. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.95. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, March 27th. The financial services provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $1.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.52 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 5.90% and a return on equity of 4.41%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.55 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 3.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 20th will be given a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.89%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 17th. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.