Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,400,000 shares, a drop of 69.4% from the January 15th total of 11,100,000 shares. Currently, 2.2% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,600,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.1 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Jefferies Financial Group

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the 3rd quarter worth $286,476,000. FMR LLC lifted its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 782.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,286,958 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $202,312,000 after purchasing an additional 2,914,504 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 57.4% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,941,692 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $309,029,000 after buying an additional 1,437,179 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 157.2% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 802,366 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $62,905,000 after buying an additional 490,389 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Jefferies Financial Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $35,520,000. 60.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

Jefferies Financial Group stock traded down $1.12 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $70.80. The company had a trading volume of 1,088,462 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,643,854. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $77.09 and a 200 day moving average of $68.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.07. The firm has a market cap of $14.59 billion, a PE ratio of 23.77 and a beta of 1.34. Jefferies Financial Group has a one year low of $39.86 and a one year high of $82.68.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $1.96 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.83 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 7.92% and a net margin of 10.57%. Jefferies Financial Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 63.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.30 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Jefferies Financial Group will post 4.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is a boost from Jefferies Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.26%. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.98%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $67.00 to $97.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Oppenheimer cut their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $82.00 to $81.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 3rd.

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.