Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (JEF) Stock Price & How to Invest

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. is a New York holding company founded in 1968 and run by Richard Handler, who has been chief executive since 2001. It reports two segments. Investment Banking and Capital Markets is the bulk of the firm: in the quarter ended May 31, 2026 investment banking produced ~$1.21 billion of net revenues, split between advisory at ~$674 million, equity underwriting at ~$371 million and debt underwriting at ~$160 million, while capital markets added ~$799 million from equities (~$601 million) and fixed income (~$199 million). Asset Management, which operates as Leucadia Asset Management, contributed ~$188 million. The firm employs roughly 7,400 people, carried ~$79.5 billion of total assets at ~7.5 times leverage, and closes its fiscal year on November 30, so fiscal 2026 runs from December 2025 through November 2026. It has spent several years shedding the legacy merchant banking holdings inherited from the old Leucadia National, which is why the business now reads as a Wall Street firm rather than the conglomerate it was a decade ago.

The investment picture in September 2026 is a bank doing well at its day job while its credit funds keep making headlines. Fiscal 2025 net revenues were ~$7.3 billion with diluted EPS of ~$2.85, the first half of fiscal 2026 was the best banking half the firm has recorded at ~$4.21 billion of net revenues, and return on adjusted tangible equity reached ~12.8 percent in the second quarter against ~10.1 percent for the prior full year. Against that, on October 8, 2025 Jefferies disclosed that its Point Bonita Capital fund held roughly $715 million of receivables tied to First Brands Group, an auto parts supplier that had just filed for bankruptcy with about $12 billion of debt, and the position represented about a quarter of that fund's trade finance portfolio. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice have been reviewing the disclosures since. Then in late August 2026 a separate Jefferies vehicle, LAM Trade Finance Group II, went to a London court alleging that iron ore trader Radiant World had falsified invoices behind nearly $500 million of exposure, winning a worldwide freezing order. Shares closed at ~$51.96 on September 11, 2026, down ~3.7 percent that day and roughly 27 percent below the ~$71.04 set in September 2025, though still well above the ~$35.53 low touched in March 2026.

The clearest risk is that the trade finance losses are a pattern rather than two accidents. Point Bonita held roughly $715 million of First Brands receivables when that company collapsed in September 2025, about a quarter of the fund's trade finance book, and eleven months later LAM Trade Finance Group II alleged in London that Radiant World had faked the invoices behind nearly $500 million more. Both vehicles sit inside Leucadia Asset Management, so the direct earnings damage has been contained (the disclosed First Brands loss of Jefferies' own capital was about $30 million), but the reputational cost falls on a firm whose business is intermediating other people's credit. Regulatory and legal overhang is real: the SEC and Department of Justice have been reviewing the First Brands disclosures and reportedly the firm's internal controls and internal conflicts, Western Alliance Bank has sued over $126.4 million it says it is owed under a forbearance agreement, and two Eugenia investment vehicles have sued over how the Point Bonita receivables were described, while a long list of plaintiff firms has announced securities-fraud investigations that had not become a filed class action as of September 2026. Underneath the headlines, this is a cyclical business funded in wholesale markets rather than by deposits, operating at roughly 7.5 times leverage on ~$79.5 billion of assets, and its revenue falls hard when issuance and M&A windows close, as they did across 2022 and 2023.

6 analysts publish price targets on JEF, averaging $60.67 against a $51.96 price as of September 2026, or +16.8%. The published targets run from $46.00 to $83.00, a moderate spread, and the ratings split 2 buy, 4 hold, 0 sell. Over the last six months there have been 5 raises and 6 cuts among the published actions. A price target is what an analyst published on a date, not a prediction, and sell-side ratings skew positive across the whole market.

Read the full JEF forecast and price target for the target table, the recent rating actions by firm, and how the consensus has shifted.

We give no verdict on Jefferies Financial Group Inc.. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.

The case for buying. Investment banking is running at a record pace. Investment banking net revenues of ~$1.21 billion in the quarter ended May 31, 2026 were up ~57 percent year over year, with advisory at ~$674 million (up ~47 percent) and equity underwriting at ~$371 million after roughly tripling. The most optimistic published target, $83.00, assumes this works close to its best case.

The case against. The clearest risk is that the trade finance losses are a pattern rather than two accidents. The most pessimistic target, $46.00, is roughly what JEF is worth if this bites instead.

Read the full bull and bear case on JEF, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see Jefferies Financial Group Inc.'s investor relations page or your broker.

• Net revenues (trailing four quarters): ~$8.3 billion, against ~$7.3 billion for fiscal 2025
• Q2 FY2026 (quarter ended May 31, 2026): net revenues ~$2.21 billion (up ~35%), diluted EPS ~$1.02
• Book value per common share: ~$51.95, roughly 1.0x the ~$51.96 share price
• Adjusted tangible book value per fully diluted share: ~$34.55, roughly 1.5x
• Return on adjusted tangible equity: ~12.8% in Q2 FY2026, ~10.1% for fiscal 2025
• Market capitalization: ~$10.6 billion at the ~$51.96 close on September 11, 2026, on roughly 194 million shares outstanding

At ~$51.96 the stock trades at essentially one times stated book value of ~$51.95 per common share, and at roughly 1.5 times adjusted tangible book of ~$34.55, with the gap between the two being goodwill and intangibles from earlier acquisitions. Trailing earnings near $3.60 per diluted share put the multiple around 14.5, which is a full price for a broker-dealer at what management calls a record first half. The 52-week range of ~$35.53 to ~$71.04 is the more telling number, because the market has repriced this business by a factor of two inside a year while reported earnings moved nothing like that far.

Other names that sit close to JEF: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.

There are three common ways to get JEF exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it, which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so JEF sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where JEF fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.

New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.

JEF is a profitable, cyclical investment bank changing hands at almost exactly its stated book value, and what anyone concludes about it rests on whether the trade finance losses stay confined to the smallest of its three revenue lines.

Whether JEF is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is JEF a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the JEF stock forecast.

For income investors, whether JEF pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does JEF pay a dividend? And to weigh JEF against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: JEF vs LAZ and JEF vs EVR.