Is Jefferies Financial Group (JEF) Mirroring Wall Street Downturn?

We recently published a list of 10 Companies Mirror Wall Street Downturn. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) stands against other companies mirroring Wall Street downturn.

Wall Street’s main indices finished the shortened trading week in the negative territory, dampened by labor market data that came in much hotter than expected. The news fueled concerns that the Federal Reserve will not slash interest rates again.

Both the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq Composite dived by 1.63 percent on Friday, while the S&P 500 declined by 1.54 percent.

Ten companies mirrored a wider market downturn amid a series of catalysts that dampened investing appetite. This article explores the reasons behind their decline.

In Friday’s biggest losers, we only considered the stocks with at least $2 billion in market capitalization and $5 million in daily trading volume.

A financial advisor shaking hands with a client, representing the wealth management services of the company.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

Shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) declined by 10.80 percent on Friday, ending the trading week at $71.48 apiece as investors unloaded positions after the investment bank missed fourth-quarter earnings expectations.

In the fourth quarter of the year, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) posted earnings per share of 93 cents, lower than the 97 cents analysts expected. During the same period last year, Jefferies (JEF) posted 29-cent earnings per share.

Revenues surged by 73 percent to $986.8 million but were weaker than expected, hurt by lower equity underwriting, according to UBS analysts.

While advisory revenues jumped 91 percent year-on-year to $596.7 million, the figure still missed UBS analyst projections of $609 million.

Overall, JEF ranks 5th on our list of companies mirroring Wall Street downturn. While we acknowledge the potential of JEF as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than JEF but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.