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

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Jefferies (JEF - Free Report) closed at $31.90 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.38% move from the prior day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.36%.

Heading into today, shares of the investment banking and capital markets company had lost 2.96% over the past month, lagging the Finance sector's gain of 4.54% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.75% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from JEF as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.11, up 593.75% from the prior-year quarter. 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 should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for JEF. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about 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.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. JEF is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, JEF currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 7.34. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 13.54.

The Financial - Miscellaneous Services industry is part of the Finance sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 185, which puts it in the bottom 28% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our 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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