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

Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) announced 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 raised its dividend annually for the last 15 consecutive years. Discover Financial Services has a payout ratio of 18.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Discover Financial Services to earn $12.82 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 21.8%.

Discover Financial Services Stock Performance

Discover Financial Services stock traded up $3.28 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $200.78. 1,705,621 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,535,343. The stock has a market capitalization of $50.46 billion, a PE ratio of 16.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 1.03. Discover Financial Services has a 12-month low of $99.79 and a 12-month high of $204.93. The business’s 50-day moving average is $177.76 and its 200-day moving average is $153.68.

Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 22nd. The financial services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $1.98. Discover Financial Services had a return on equity of 22.08% and a net margin of 13.78%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Discover Financial Services will post 14.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on DFS shares. UBS Group upgraded Discover Financial Services from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $150.00 to $239.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Discover Financial Services from $150.00 to $146.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Barclays upgraded Discover Financial Services from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $137.00 to $186.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com upgraded Discover Financial Services from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Truist Financial assumed coverage on Discover Financial Services in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $233.00 price target for the company. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $171.71.

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.