Jefferies Works Through Tough Markets
Here's our initial take on Jefferies Financial Group's (NYSE: JEF) fiscal second-quarter financial report.
Jefferies didn't have very high expectations coming into Q2, but the company still wasn't able to satisfy investors fully. Earnings came in around $0.03 per share less than the analysts' consensus had expected, and a slightly smaller drop in revenue than most were expecting wasn't enough to restore confidence in the financial institution's overall health.
Jefferies pointed to several countervailing factors affecting its results. Within its investment banking segment, Jefferies saw a massive uptick in advisory revenue, spurred by gains in market share and greater levels of activity in mergers and acquisitions. Weighing against those gains, though, was an equally large drop in equity underwriting activity. The net result was a decline in the segment's overall sales year over year.
Source Fool.com
