Jefferies Financial Group Inc. ( JEF ) reported its first-quarter financial results after the bell Wednesday. Here's a look at the highlights. 

The Details: The company reported quarterly earnings of 87 cents per share which beat the analyst consensus estimate of 75 cents by 16% and was a 58.18% increase over earnings of 55 cents per share from the same period last year.

Quarterly sales came in at $1.74 billion, beating the analyst consensus estimate of $1.52 billion by 14.36% and represented a 35.48% increase year-over-year.

Investment Banking net revenues for the quarter were $740 million, up 28.2% from the prior quarter, and Capital Markets net revenues came in at $712 million, up 47.9% from the prior quarter.

“Our Q1 results reflect solid performance across our businesses and our Investment Banking pipeline continues to strengthen, which leads us to believe a more robust market is developing. Our strong results in Capital Markets have continued into the current quarter,” said Richard Handler, CEO of Jefferies Financial ( JEF ).

“We are pleased that, adjusting for the impact of the net loss on Weiss, we generated an annualized return on adjusted tangible equity from continuing operations of 12.0% and net earnings from continuing operations of $0.87 per diluted common share,” Handler added.

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JEF Price Action: According to Benzinga Pro, Jefferies Financial ( JEF ) shares are down 0.065% after-hours at $46.10 at the time of publication Wednesday.