Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) CEO Sells $65,250,000.00 in Stock

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) CEO Richard B. Handler sold 1,500,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.50, for a total transaction of $65,250,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 15,314,150 shares in the company, valued at approximately $666,165,525. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Jefferies Financial Group Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:JEF opened at $43.56 on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $28.81 and a 1 year high of $47.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.70 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $43.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $39.30.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 27th. The financial services provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.52 billion. Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 4.41% and a net margin of 5.90%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.55 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will post 3.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Jefferies Financial Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 20th will be issued a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 17th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.75%. Jefferies Financial Group’s payout ratio is currently 98.36%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in JEF. Naples Money Management LLC purchased a new position in Jefferies Financial Group in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the 3rd quarter worth $45,000. Allworth Financial LP raised its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 56.6% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,126 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares during the period. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Jefferies Financial Group during the 4th quarter worth $47,000. Finally, Ronald Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Jefferies Financial Group by 175.7% during the 3rd quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,362 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $50,000 after acquiring an additional 868 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 60.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

JEF has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Jefferies Financial Group from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Jefferies Financial Group presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.33.

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.