Jefferies Financial Group Inc. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.35 (NYSE:JEF)

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, September 25th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a dividend of 0.35 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, November 27th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th.

Jefferies Financial Group has increased its dividend payment by an average of 26.0% per year over the last three years. Jefferies Financial Group has a payout ratio of 32.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Jefferies Financial Group to earn $4.71 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 29.7%.

Jefferies Financial Group Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of Jefferies Financial Group stock opened at $61.10 on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group has a 52-week low of $31.38 and a 52-week high of $62.98. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $57.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $50.04. The firm has a market cap of $12.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.76 and a beta of 1.32.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by ($0.03). Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 5.37% and a net margin of 7.82%. The firm had revenue of $1.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.32 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 42.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Jefferies Financial Group will post 3.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on JEF. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $64.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $59.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 21st. Finally, UBS Group started coverage on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $67.00 price objective on the stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Jefferies Financial Group news, Director Mitsui Financial Grou Sumitomo purchased 9,247,081 shares of Jefferies Financial Group stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 19th. The shares were bought at an average price of $59.67 per share, with a total value of $551,773,323.27. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 9,247,081 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $551,773,323.27. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 20.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.