Lake Street Private Wealth LLC Makes New $216,000 Investment in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

Lake Street Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 2,750 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $216,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in JEF. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. bought a new position in Jefferies Financial Group during the third quarter valued at about $286,476,000. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 782.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,286,958 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $202,312,000 after purchasing an additional 2,914,504 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP raised its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 365.9% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,947,192 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $96,892,000 after purchasing an additional 1,529,218 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 157.2% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its position in Jefferies Financial Group by 12.9% in the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 3,396,255 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $168,998,000 after purchasing an additional 389,385 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.88% of the company’s stock.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

Jefferies Financial Group stock opened at $75.74 on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $38.77 and a 52-week high of $82.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $77.44 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $65.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.42 and a beta of 1.35.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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). The firm had revenue of $1.96 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.83 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 10.57% and a return on equity of 7.97%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 63.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.30 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 4.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.11%. This is a boost from Jefferies Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Jefferies Financial Group

In related news, 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,081,825,270.88. The trade was a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, President Brian P. Friedman sold 247,326 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.20, for a total transaction of $16,125,655.20. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 1,632,277 shares in the company, valued at approximately $106,424,460.40. This represents a 13.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,086,923 shares of company stock worth $76,381,151. 20.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

JEF has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $67.00 to $97.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on shares of Jefferies Financial Group from $82.00 to $81.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note 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.