Berkshire Hathaway Inc Makes New Investment in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF

Berkshire Hathaway Inc bought a new stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 433,558 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $21,669,000. Jefferies Financial Group makes up about 0.0% of Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s holdings, making the stock its 25th biggest holding.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bison Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group in the 4th quarter worth $224,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group during the second quarter valued at $3,325,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 159.3% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 892 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 548 shares during the last quarter. Amundi lifted its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 8.6% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 226,025 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $12,798,000 after acquiring an additional 17,935 shares during the period. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 11.8% in the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 25,970 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,420,000 after acquiring an additional 2,751 shares during the period. 60.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

NYSE:JEF opened at $53.12 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $54.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $50.82. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $35.53 and a 52-week high of $71.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.29 billion, a PE ratio of 14.84 and a beta of 1.54.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last posted 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). Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 9.23% and a net margin of 7.58%.The company had revenue of $2.21 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.30 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.40 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 35.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 3.71 EPS for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 28th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 18th will be paid 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 3.0%. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.69%.

Jefferies Financial Group declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, June 24th that permits the company to repurchase $250.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to repurchase up to 2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on JEF. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research note on Friday, June 5th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $67.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $42.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Jefferies Financial Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.62.

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.