Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Acquires Shares of 2,788 Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management bought a new position in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 2,788 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $219,000.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. purchased a new position in Jefferies Financial Group during the third quarter worth $286,476,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 782.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,286,958 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $202,312,000 after purchasing an additional 2,914,504 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in Jefferies Financial Group by 157.2% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 802,366 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $62,905,000 after purchasing an additional 490,389 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 95.7% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 780,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $48,063,000 after purchasing an additional 381,893 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 20.6% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 2,014,387 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $123,987,000 after purchasing an additional 344,409 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.88% of the company’s stock.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

Shares of JEF stock opened at $77.15 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $77.75 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $67.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a one year low of $39.58 and a one year high of $82.68. The company has a market capitalization of $15.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.89 and a beta of 1.35.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.97 by ($0.06). Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 7.97% and a net margin of 10.57%. The firm had revenue of $1.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.83 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.30 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 63.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.55 EPS for the current year.

Jefferies Financial Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This is an increase from Jefferies Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. Jefferies Financial Group’s payout ratio is presently 46.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Jefferies Financial Group news, CEO Richard B. Handler sold 400,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.26, for a total transaction of $28,904,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 14,971,288 shares in the company, valued at $1,081,825,270.88. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, President Brian P. Friedman sold 393,397 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.17, for a total value of $28,391,461.49. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 560,507 shares in the company, valued at $40,451,790.19. This trade represents a 41.24 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 20.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on JEF. Morgan Stanley raised Jefferies Financial Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $67.00 to $97.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Oppenheimer cut their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $82.00 to $81.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 3rd.

Jefferies Financial Group Profile

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.