Caprock Group LLC Purchases New Stake in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

Caprock Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 3,679 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $226,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in JEF. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV boosted its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 75.7% during the 2nd quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 520 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 224 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in Jefferies Financial Group by 1,993.8% during the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 670 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 638 shares during the last quarter. Eastern Bank acquired a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group in the third quarter worth $42,000. Finally, Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Jefferies Financial Group in the second quarter valued at $48,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.88% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Robert D. Beyer sold 46,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.07, for a total transaction of $2,960,034.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 100,375 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,431,026.25. This represents a 31.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Richard B. Handler sold 400,000 shares of Jefferies Financial Group stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.26, for a total value of $28,904,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 14,971,288 shares in the company, valued at $1,081,825,270.88. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,286,923 shares of company stock worth $88,999,151. Insiders own 20.40% of the company’s stock.

Jefferies Financial Group Trading Up 2.4 %

Shares of Jefferies Financial Group stock opened at $78.58 on Monday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $66.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $56.91. The firm has a market cap of $16.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.58 and a beta of 1.31. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $34.34 and a fifty-two week high of $78.74. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53.

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 for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by ($0.03). Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 9.27% and a return on equity of 6.40%. The business had revenue of $1.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.32 earnings per share. Jefferies Financial Group’s revenue was up 42.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 3.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be issued a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.78%. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 59.83%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

JEF has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $73.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $59.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, UBS Group initiated coverage on Jefferies Financial Group in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $67.00 price objective for the company.

Jefferies Financial Group Company 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.