Jefferies Financial Group Inc (NYSE: JEF)’s stock price has gone decline by -0.82 in comparison to its previous close of 44.59, however, the company has experienced a 7.37% increase in its stock price over the last five trading days. Seeking Alpha reported 2024-04-22 that S&P 500 experienced a chaotic week, eroding progress made in January 2022, I update my views on my prior market prediction. Earnings season off to a strong start, with the majority of firms beating analyst estimates, particularly in the financial sector. Two top picks for the rest of the year are given, which have shown superior earnings performance, and have macro tailwinds going forward.
Is It Worth Investing in Jefferies Financial Group Inc (NYSE: JEF) Right Now?
The price-to-earnings ratio for Jefferies Financial Group Inc (NYSE: JEF) is 36.15x, which is above its average ratio. Moreover, the 36-month beta value for JEF is 1.35. Analysts have varying opinions on the stock, with 0 analysts rating it as a “buy,” 0 as “overweight,” 0 as “hold,” and 0 as “sell.”
The public float for JEF is 155.84M and currently, short sellers hold a 1.19% of that float. On April 24, 2024, JEF’s average trading volume was 984.93K shares.
JEF’s Market Performance
JEF stock saw a decrease of 7.37% in the past week, with a monthly decline of -2.29% and a quarterly a decrease of 8.18%. The volatility ratio for the week is 2.06%, and the volatility levels for the last 30 days are 2.23% for Jefferies Financial Group Inc (JEF). The simple moving average for the last 20 days is 2.14% for JEF’s stock, with a simple moving average of 15.99% for the last 200 days.
Analysts’ Opinion of JEF
Many brokerage firms have already submitted their reports for JEF stocks, with Goldman repeating the rating for JEF by listing it as a “Buy.” The predicted price for JEF in the upcoming period, according to Goldman is $40 based on the research report published on August 22, 2023 of the previous year 2023.
Morgan Stanley, on the other hand, stated in their research note that they expect to see JEF reach a price target of $36, previously predicting the price at $27. The rating they have provided for JEF stocks is “Equal-Weight” according to the report published on July 12th, 2023.
Morgan Stanley gave a rating of “Underweight” to JEF, setting the target price at $27 in the report published on April 12th of the previous year.
JEF Trading at 3.12% from the 50-Day Moving Average
After a stumble in the market that brought JEF to its low price for the period of the last 52 weeks, the company was unable to rebound, for now settling with -6.68% of loss for the given period.
Volatility was left at 2.23%, however, over the last 30 days, the volatility rate increased by 2.06%, as shares sank -2.03% for the moving average over the last 20 days. Over the last 50 days, in opposition, the stock is trading +7.03% upper at present.
During the last 5 trading sessions, JEF rose by +7.55%, which changed the moving average for the period of 200-days by +34.28% in comparison to the 20-day moving average, which settled at $43.25. In addition, Jefferies Financial Group Inc saw 9.44% in overturn over a single year, with a tendency to cut further gains.
Insider Trading
Reports are indicating that there were more than several insider trading activities at JEF starting from STEINBERG JOSEPH S, who sale 134,217 shares at the price of $35.79 back on Aug 04 ’23. After this action, STEINBERG JOSEPH S now owns 15,744,184 shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc, valued at $4,803,224 using the latest closing price.
STEINBERG JOSEPH S, the Chairman of the Board of Jefferies Financial Group Inc, sale 346,984 shares at $35.68 during a trade that took place back on Aug 03 ’23, which means that STEINBERG JOSEPH S is holding 15,878,401 shares at $12,379,695 based on the most recent closing price.
Stock Fundamentals for JEF
Current profitability levels for the company are sitting at:
- 0.33 for the present operating margin
- 0.7 for the gross margin
The net margin for Jefferies Financial Group Inc stands at 0.07. The total capital return value is set at 0.05. Equity return is now at value 3.20, with 0.55 for asset returns.
Based on Jefferies Financial Group Inc (JEF), the company’s capital structure generated 0.73 points at debt to capital in total, while cash flow to debt ratio is standing at -0.01. The debt to equity ratio resting at 2.75. The interest coverage ratio of the stock is 0.94.
Currently, EBITDA for the company is 3.21 billion with net debt to EBITDA at 6.75. When we switch over and look at the enterprise to sales, we see a ratio of 3.58. The receivables turnover for the company is 1.43for trailing twelve months and the total asset turnover is 0.13.
Conclusion
To wrap up, the performance of Jefferies Financial Group Inc (JEF) has been better in recent times. The stock has received a mixed of “buy” and “hold” ratings from analysts. It is worth mentioning that the stock is currently trading in close proximity to its 50-day moving average and its 52-week high.
