Chou Associates Management Inc. Invests $7.46 Million in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF

Chou Associates Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 149,237 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $7,459,000. Jefferies Financial Group comprises about 3.4% of Chou Associates Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest position.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $834,947,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. grew its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 422.0% during the 4th quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 3,972,352 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $246,167,000 after purchasing an additional 3,211,375 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 696.8% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,412,301 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $211,460,000 after purchasing an additional 2,984,055 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Jefferies Financial Group during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $145,584,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in Jefferies Financial Group during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $66,971,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.88% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on JEF shares. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Oppenheimer reduced their target price on Jefferies Financial Group from $87.00 to $83.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Jefferies Financial Group from $67.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, Loop Capital set a $60.00 price target on Jefferies Financial Group in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Jefferies Financial Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.62.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:JEF opened at $52.35 on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $35.53 and a twelve month 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. The company has a market cap of $10.14 billion, a PE ratio of 14.62 and a beta of 1.54. The company’s 50 day moving average is $55.34 and its 200 day moving average is $50.99.

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

Jefferies Financial Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 28th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 18th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 18th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. Jefferies Financial Group’s payout ratio is currently 44.69%.

Jefferies Financial Group announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, June 24th that authorizes the company to buyback $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the financial services provider to repurchase up to 2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are 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.