United Services Automobile Association Has $646,000 Holdings in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

United Services Automobile Association trimmed its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) by 20.6% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 10,493 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,726 shares during the period. United Services Automobile Association’s holdings in Jefferies Financial Group were worth $646,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of JEF. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Eastern Bank acquired a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $42,000. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in Jefferies Financial Group in the second quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV boosted its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 68.1% in the third quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 1,071 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $66,000 after buying an additional 434 shares during the period. Finally, Quarry LP bought a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the third quarter worth $70,000. 60.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Jefferies Financial Group

In other news, CEO Richard B. Handler sold 400,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.26, for a total transaction of $28,904,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 14,971,288 shares in the company, valued at $1,081,825,270.88. The trade was a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Robert D. Beyer sold 46,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.07, for a total transaction of $2,960,034.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 100,375 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,431,026.25. This trade represents a 31.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,286,923 shares of company stock worth $88,999,151 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 20.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on JEF. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $73.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Jefferies Financial Group from $59.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, UBS Group initiated coverage on Jefferies Financial Group in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $67.00 price objective for the company.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Up 0.2 %

Jefferies Financial Group stock opened at $78.12 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.10 and a 1-year high of $80.53. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $69.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $59.15. The company has a market cap of $16.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.38 and a beta of 1.35.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.78 by ($0.03). Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 9.27% and a return on equity of 6.40%. The company had revenue of $1.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.32 EPS. Jefferies Financial Group’s revenue was up 42.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th were given a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 18th. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 59.83%.

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.