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

Jefferies (JEF) closed at $40.38 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.4% move from the prior day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.41% loss on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.01%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.13%.

Heading into today, shares of the investment banking and capital markets company had gained 4.93% over the past month, outpacing the Finance sector's gain of 4.72% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.36% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Jefferies as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be January 12, 2022. On that day, Jefferies is projected to report earnings of $1.40 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 26.13%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $1.9 billion, up 2.28% from the year-ago period.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Jefferies should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

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 has moved 9.71% higher. Jefferies is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Investors should also note Jefferies's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 10.47. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 11.71, which means Jefferies is trading at a discount to the group.

The Financial - Miscellaneous Services industry is part of the Finance sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 88, putting it in the top 35% 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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