Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE: JEF) stock jumped 2.66% on Thursday to $38.20 against a previous-day closing price of $37.21. With 1.51 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained heavier than its average volume of 1.2 million shares. During the session, the Capital Markets company that operates in wider Financial sector, reached to the highest price of $38.23 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $37.50. The 52-week range on JEF shows that it touched its highest point at $40.68 and its lowest point at $27.48 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $39.67. With its current market cap of 8.33 billion, JEF has annualized dividend of $1.20 while the current yield stands at 3.14%. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.43.
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Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of JEF was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 4.43%, but this was up by 10.89% over a month. Three-month performance surged to 16.39% while six-month performance rose 23.58%. The stock gained 21.29% in the past year, while it has gained 16.62% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for JEF yields 1.93 with Next year EPS estimates of 3.70. For the next quarter, that number is 0.52. This implies an EPS growth rate of -50.40% for this year and 154.15% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 18.00% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of 27.70%.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 242.57 million JEF shares are outstanding with a float of 177.05 million shares on hand for trading. On Aug 30, 2023, short shares totaled 7.73 million, which was 3.50% higher than short shares on Jul 30, 2023. In addition to Mr. Joseph Saul Steinberg as the firm’s Co-Founder & Chairman, Mr. Richard Brian Handler serves as its CEO & Director.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 64.85% of JEF’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 34.46% of JEF, in contrast to 29.47% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 21.01%. As the largest shareholder in JEF with 9.24% of the stake, The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds 20,407,690 shares worth 20,407,690. A second-largest stockholder of JEF, BlackRock Fund Advisors, holds 15,970,071 shares, controlling over 7.23% of the firm’s shares. First Pacific Advisors LP is the third largest shareholder in JEF, holding 5,512,011 shares or 2.50% stake. With a 2.71% stake in JEF, the iShares Core S&P Mid Cap ETF is the largest stakeholder. A total of 5,989,979 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, which owns about 2.32% of JEF stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 5,132,208 shares valued at 188.81 million. FPA Crescent Fund holds 2.13% of the stake in JEF, owning 4,697,583 shares worth 172.82 million.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for JEF since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With JEF analysts setting a high price target of $43.00 and a low target of $36.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $39.67. Based on these targets, JEF could surge 12.57% to reach the target high and fall by -5.76% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 3.85% from current levels.
EPS: Estimates vs Actual
It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded JEF stock several times over the past three months with 2 Buys and 6 Sells. In these transactions, 70,619 shares were bought while 1,216,679 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 47 while that of sell transactions has risen to 23 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 6,234,003 while 7,731,095 shares were sold.
