Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.70

Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 23rd,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, May 23rd will be given a dividend of 0.70 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, June 6th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.39%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 23rd.

Discover Financial Services has raised its dividend payment by an average of 14.2% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 15 years. Discover Financial Services has a dividend payout ratio of 18.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Discover Financial Services to earn $15.07 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 18.6%.

Discover Financial Services Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE DFS opened at $201.59 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $50.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.46. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $178.30 and its 200-day moving average price is $154.01. Discover Financial Services has a 12 month low of $101.71 and a 12 month high of $204.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09.

Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The financial services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $1.98. Discover Financial Services had a net margin of 17.29% and a return on equity of 27.52%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Discover Financial Services will post 12.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on DFS. Barclays boosted their target price on Discover Financial Services from $186.00 to $209.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Discover Financial Services from $170.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Discover Financial Services from $185.00 to $214.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. UBS Group upgraded shares of Discover Financial Services from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $150.00 to $239.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Discover Financial Services from $146.00 to $169.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $180.57.

Discover Financial Services Company Profile

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.