Shares of Jefferies Financial Group Inc (NYSE:JEF) are up 6.8% to trade at $52.12 at last glance, after the finance name received an upgrade to "outperform" from "perform" at Oppenheimer. The firm praised Jefferies' investor day presentation, despite the security's double-digit drop following the event. Bank stocks have been making headlines, today looking to bounce back after a steep pullback triggered by bad loans.
JEF has struggled this year, down 33.7% in 2025. Yesterday's pullback was captured by the long-term support at the $48 region, however, paring any further losses. Coming into today, three of the five analysts in coverage carried a "hold" recommendation. This leaves room for more upgrades.
Puts have been much more popular than usual over the last two weeks, per JEF's 10-day put/call volume ratio of 1.26 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), which ranks higher than 98% of readings from the past year. This presents an opportunity for bulls to move in on JEF.
Options are running rampant in response to the upgrade, too. So far 10,000 calls and 4,623 puts have been traded, triple the average intraday pace. Most popular is the January 16, 2026 75-strike call, followed by the the October 50 put.
