Jefferies Financial Group Inc. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.40 (NYSE:JEF)

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, March 25th. Investors of record on Monday, May 18th will be paid a dividend of 0.40 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, May 29th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.0%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 18th.

Jefferies Financial Group has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.2%per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 2 years. Jefferies Financial Group has a dividend payout ratio of 38.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Jefferies Financial Group to earn $6.16 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 26.0%.

Jefferies Financial Group Stock Performance

Jefferies Financial Group stock opened at $39.62 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73. The stock has a market cap of $8.18 billion, a PE ratio of 14.00 and a beta of 1.52. Jefferies Financial Group has a 12-month low of $35.53 and a 12-month high of $71.04. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $51.02 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $56.70.

Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, March 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15 by ($0.45). Jefferies Financial Group had a return on equity of 7.27% and a net margin of 6.56%.The company had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.02 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.57 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 26.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Jefferies Financial Group will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on JEF. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Jefferies Financial Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $49.00 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, March 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Jefferies Financial Group from $61.00 to $54.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Jefferies Financial Group in a report on Monday, December 29th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Jefferies Financial Group from $68.00 to $42.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on Jefferies Financial Group from $76.00 to $59.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $58.14.

Jefferies Financial Group Company Profile

Jefferies Financial Group Inc is a diversified financial services company that provides a range of investment banking, capital markets and asset management services to corporations, governments and institutional investors worldwide. Through its core platform, Jefferies offers advisory services for mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity underwriting, restructuring and recapitalization. The firm also operates a global sales and trading business covering equities, fixed income and foreign exchange products, complemented by equity research and macroeconomic analysis.

In addition to its capital markets franchise, Jefferies maintains a growing asset management division that delivers customized investment solutions across public and private markets.