Discover Financial Services (DFS) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.70 on December 5th

Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 16th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of 0.70 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st.

Discover Financial Services has raised its dividend by an average of 15.3% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. Discover Financial Services has a dividend payout ratio of 21.9% meaning 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

Shares of DFS stock opened at $173.22 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The company has a market cap of $43.49 billion, a PE ratio of 13.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 1.41. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $148.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $136.41. Discover Financial Services has a 52 week low of $85.19 and a 52 week high of $188.26.

Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $3.69 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.28 by $0.41. Discover Financial Services had a return on equity of 21.38% and a net margin of 13.78%. The company had revenue of $5.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.36 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.59 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Discover Financial Services will post 13.23 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Discover Financial Services from $148.00 to $161.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Discover Financial Services from $156.00 to $163.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Discover Financial Services from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Discover Financial Services from $152.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $138.81.

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.