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

Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 22nd,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of 0.70 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, March 6th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.41%.

Discover Financial Services has raised its dividend payment by an average of 14.2% per year over the last three years and has increased 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. Research 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 Price Performance

DFS stock opened at $197.98 on Thursday. Discover Financial Services has a 1 year low of $99.07 and a 1 year high of $198.97. The company has a market cap of $49.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.98, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.46. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $177.76 and a 200 day moving average of $153.68. 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 (NYSE:DFS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The financial services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $1.98. Discover Financial Services had a net margin of 13.78% and a return on equity of 22.08%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Discover Financial Services will post 14.15 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on DFS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Discover Financial Services from $150.00 to $146.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Discover Financial Services from $156.00 to $163.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Discover Financial Services from $160.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Discover Financial Services from $148.00 to $161.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Discover Financial Services from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $150.00 to $239.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company 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.