Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) Receives $188.40 Average PT from Analysts

Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the eleven ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $188.40.

A number of brokerages have recently commented on DFS. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Discover Financial Services from $262.00 to $219.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Discover Financial Services from $169.00 to $129.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Discover Financial Services from $185.00 to $214.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. StockNews.com cut Discover Financial Services from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, UBS Group raised Discover Financial Services from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $150.00 to $239.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th.

Discover Financial Services Trading Down 2.2 %

Discover Financial Services stock opened at $156.67 on Friday. Discover Financial Services has a 12 month low of $119.67 and a 12 month high of $205.76. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The stock has a market cap of $39.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.20. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $172.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $172.04.

Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The financial services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $1.98. Discover Financial Services had a net margin of 17.29% and a return on equity of 26.18%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Discover Financial Services will post 13.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Discover Financial Services Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 23rd will be issued a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 23rd. Discover Financial Services’s payout ratio is 17.54%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Discover Financial Services

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of DFS. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Discover Financial Services during the 4th quarter worth approximately $724,720,000. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors bought a new position in Discover Financial Services during the fourth quarter worth $351,766,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Discover Financial Services by 38.5% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,974,471 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $515,268,000 after purchasing an additional 826,287 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Discover Financial Services by 16,786.2% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 784,366 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $133,891,000 after purchasing an additional 779,721 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Third Point LLC bought a new position in shares of Discover Financial Services in the fourth quarter valued at about $110,867,000. 86.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Discover Financial Services

Discover Financial Services, through its subsidiaries, provides digital banking products and services, and payment services in the United States. It operates in two segments, Digital Banking and Payment Services. The Digital Banking segment offers Discover-branded credit cards to individuals; personal loans, home loans, and other consumer lending; and direct-to-consumer deposit products comprising savings accounts, certificates of deposit, money market accounts, IRA certificates of deposit, IRA savings accounts and checking accounts, and sweep accounts.