Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.40

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, March 26th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be paid a dividend of 0.40 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, May 29th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.65%.

Jefferies Financial Group has increased its dividend payment by an average of 13.0% per year over the last three years. Jefferies Financial Group has a dividend payout ratio of 28.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Jefferies Financial Group to earn $6.16 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 26.0%.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

NYSE JEF traded down $1.37 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $60.33. 2,814,466 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,432,147. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.25 and a beta of 1.37. Jefferies Financial Group has a 12-month low of $40.72 and a 12-month high of $82.68. The business has a 50 day moving average of $67.68 and a 200-day moving average of $69.58.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.06). Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 10.57% and a return on equity of 7.92%. The business had revenue of $1.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.83 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.30 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 63.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Jefferies Financial Group will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer cut Jefferies Financial Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $75.00 price target on Jefferies Financial Group in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $92.00 to $81.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 13th.

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.