Discover Financial Services Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:DFS)

Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) saw some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders purchased 7,453 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 94% compared to the typical daily volume of 3,847 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Discover Financial Services

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Discover Financial Services in the 4th quarter worth approximately $724,720,000. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors bought a new stake in shares of Discover Financial Services during the fourth quarter worth $351,766,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Discover Financial Services by 38.5% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,974,471 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $515,268,000 after purchasing an additional 826,287 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Discover Financial Services by 16,786.2% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 784,366 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $133,891,000 after acquiring an additional 779,721 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Third Point LLC acquired a new position in Discover Financial Services during the fourth quarter worth $110,867,000. 86.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Discover Financial Services Stock Performance

Shares of DFS opened at $185.02 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $169.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $173.61. Discover Financial Services has a one year low of $119.95 and a one year high of $205.76. The company has a market capitalization of $46.55 billion, a PE ratio of 11.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.03.

Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $4.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.33 by $0.92. Discover Financial Services had a return on equity of 26.18% and a net margin of 17.29%. The company had revenue of $4.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.25 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Discover Financial Services will post 13.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on DFS shares. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Discover Financial Services from $219.00 to $229.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. UBS Group upgraded shares of Discover Financial Services from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $150.00 to $239.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. StockNews.com cut Discover Financial Services from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Discover Financial Services from $169.00 to $129.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, TD Securities lowered their price target on Discover Financial Services from $188.00 to $184.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $188.91.

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.