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Jefferies (JEF) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Jefferies (JEF - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $31.78, moving -1.58% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.15% gain on the day.

Heading into today, shares of the investment banking and capital markets company had gained 0.87% over the past month, lagging the Finance sector's gain of 4.29% and outpacing the S&P 500's gain of 0.58% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from JEF as it approaches its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect JEF to post earnings of $1.11 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 593.75%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $1.74 billion, up 51.62% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $4.33 per share and revenue of $6.78 billion. These totals would mark changes of +63.4% and +11.1%, respectively, from last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for JEF. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. JEF is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Looking at its valuation, JEF is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 7.46. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 13.58, so we one might conclude that JEF is trading at a discount comparatively.

The Financial - Miscellaneous Services industry is part of the Finance sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 184, which puts it in the bottom 28% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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