Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Buys New Position in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. $JEF

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 72,820 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,640,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of JEF. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group during the second quarter worth approximately $834,947,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 422.0% during the fourth quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 3,972,352 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $246,167,000 after purchasing an additional 3,211,375 shares during the period. Eminence Capital LP increased its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 13.5% in the 4th quarter. Eminence Capital LP now owns 3,812,615 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $236,268,000 after buying an additional 454,054 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 696.8% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,412,301 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $211,460,000 after acquiring an additional 2,984,055 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,942,554 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $182,390,000 after acquiring an additional 24,171 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on JEF. Oppenheimer cut their target price on Jefferies Financial Group from $87.00 to $83.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 25th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $67.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 25th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Jefferies Financial Group from $42.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.62.

Jefferies Financial Group Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of JEF opened at $53.13 on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $35.53 and a fifty-two week high of $71.04. The business has a 50-day moving average of $54.41 and a 200 day moving average of $50.79. The firm has a market cap of $10.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.84 and a beta of 1.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, June 24th. The financial services provider reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $2.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.40 EPS. Jefferies Financial Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 3.71 EPS for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, June 24th that authorizes the company to buyback $250.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the financial services provider to buy up to 2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 28th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 18th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 18th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.69%.

Jefferies Financial Group 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.