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

Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, July 17th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd will be paid a dividend of 0.70 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, September 5th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 22nd.

Discover Financial Services has raised its dividend by an average of 15.3% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. Discover Financial Services has a dividend payout ratio of 21.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Discover Financial Services to earn $13.04 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 21.5%.

Discover Financial Services Stock Performance

NYSE DFS opened at $135.32 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $131.80 and a 200-day moving average of $125.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The stock has a market cap of $33.94 billion, a PE ratio of 15.43, a P/E/G ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.43. Discover Financial Services has a 52-week low of $79.04 and a 52-week high of $147.61.

Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The financial services provider reported $6.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.06 by $3.00. The company had revenue of $4.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.18 billion. Discover Financial Services had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.92%. Discover Financial Services’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.54 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Discover Financial Services will post 12.23 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DFS has been the topic of several recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Discover Financial Services from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Discover Financial Services from $132.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Discover Financial Services from $115.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Discover Financial Services from $135.00 to $137.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Finally, BTIG Research assumed coverage on Discover Financial Services in a research report on Friday, June 7th. They set a “neutral” rating on the stock. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $131.33.

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; private student loans, 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.