Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.31 EPS

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) announced its earnings results on Wednesday. The financial services provider reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by ($0.31), Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.93 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a net margin of 10.57% and a return on equity of 7.92%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.87 EPS.

Jefferies Financial Group Price Performance

Shares of Jefferies Financial Group stock traded down $5.42 on Thursday, hitting $54.87. 1,450,179 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,433,572. Jefferies Financial Group has a 1-year low of $40.72 and a 1-year high of $82.68. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.45 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $67.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $69.52.

Jefferies Financial Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.92%. Jefferies Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 53.69%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

JEF has been the subject of a number of research reports. Oppenheimer cut shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $92.00 to $81.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $75.00 target price on Jefferies Financial Group in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th.

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.