JEF

Jefferies Financial Group is a full-service investment bank and capital-markets firm whose results are inherently cyclical, driven by investment-banking fees and principal trading. FY2025 showed a top-line recovery — revenue grew 14.2% to $5.55B — but the bottom line did not follow: net income fell 4.7% to $682M and diluted EPS slipped 5.4% to $2.83, leaving return on equity at a modest 6.4%. The multi-year swings are stark: net income ran from $1.68B (FY2021) down to a $262M trough (FY2023) and has rebuilt to $682M, underscoring how volatile and market-dependent this franchise is. (Note the operating-income and operating-margin figures in the data are mis-tagged to old periods and are not meaningful for a broker-dealer.)

The balance sheet reflects the nature of the business: $76.0B of assets against $10.6B of equity for 6.18x liabilities/equity — high but normal for a securities dealer that carries large trading inventories and financing books. Total assets grew 18.1% and liabilities 20.8%, with long-term debt up 17.5% to $15.9B and short-term borrowings up sharply. The negative $1.50B operating cash flow is largely a function of trading-asset and inventory movements rather than an operating problem, but it does highlight the capital intensity and liquidity sensitivity of the model. The risk factors emphasize the firm's exposure to credit, market and liquidity risk, principal-trading losses and the impact of a credit-rating downgrade.