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Jefferies Financial Group JEF

Jefferies Financial Group scores weak on business quality (3.3 of 10). Here is why, in plain words, and what our sealed record shows.

Last price$44.38Oct 9, 2026
Business qualityWeak
Next earningsJan 5, 2027, after the close
Insiders, 90 daysBuying

Why it matters

  1. What Jefferies Financial Group does

    Jefferies operates as an investment banking and capital markets firm, earning fees and commissions from underwriting, advisory services, and trading for corporate and institutional clients. The firm is expanding its global reach through a broader partnership with SMBC in Japan to capture cross-border deal flow.

  2. What it does best

    Jefferies excels in advisory and underwriting deal execution, leveraging deep relationships to secure mandates. Its operating margin sits at 9.3%, lagging peers like RJF at 17.8%, reflecting the heavy human-capital costs required to maintain its dealmaking engine.

  3. The main risk

    A sudden drop in capital markets activity threatens advisory fee revenue. CoreWeave capacity constraints also highlight execution risks in its sponsored technology underwriting lines, exposing deal pipelines to tech-sector spending shifts.

Quality, check by check

Scored against its own industry, from company filings.

ProfitabilityWeak

Operating margin stands at 9.3% while ROE registers at 8.5%, trailing sector medians. Profitability remains constrained by high compensation expenses, meaning margins do not expand easily with revenue scale.

MoatWeak

The firm holds a narrow franchise moat built on advisory talent and institutional relationships, landing in the 7th percentile for operating margin. Rival investment banks easily poach deal teams, limiting sustainable lock-in.

GrowthSteady

Revenue grew at 2.9% recently, landing in the bottom quartile at the 20th sector percentile for growth. This pace represents a deceleration compared to historical multi-year revenue expansion trends.

Financial healthFair

Total debt sits at $35.4B against $14.0B in cash, pushing debt-to-equity to 3.4x. Free cash flow reached $1.7B recently, a sharp swing from prior negative periods, leaving the balance sheet softer due to high leverage.

Insiders

Executives and directors, from SEC Form 4 filings we read ourselves. Open market trades only; grants, option exercises and pre-planned sales left out.

1 insider bought $318.7M on the open market.

Our sealed record on JEF

Verdicts appear here 30 days after we publish them; members see today's. Each one is in the nightly ledger, fingerprinted the night it was made.

The first sealed verdicts appear here on Oct 11, 2026.

Questions

Is JEF a good business?

Jefferies Financial Group scores weak on the Cluenex quality check (3.3 of 10), measured against its own industry. Profitability is weak, moat weak, growth steady and financial health fair.

Are insiders buying JEF?

In the last 90 days of SEC Form 4 filings: 1 insider bought $318.7M on the open market.

When does JEF report earnings?

Jan 5, 2027, after the close.

For members

See JEF today

  • Today's verdict on JEF, and why
  • Fair value with cautious, base and optimistic cases
  • The exact price that would change the verdict
  • Which stocks each signal names, the night it fires
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Cite this page: Cluenex, “Jefferies Financial Group (JEF)”, https://cluenex.com/stocks/jef/, data as of Oct 10, 2026.