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

Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 23rd,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 1.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 23rd.

Discover Financial Services has raised its dividend by an average of 14.2% annually 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. Equities 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 Trading Up 1.7 %

NYSE DFS opened at $200.89 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $177.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $153.68. Discover Financial Services has a 52 week low of $99.79 and a 52 week high of $204.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The stock has a market cap of $50.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.21, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.46.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays raised shares of Discover Financial Services from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $137.00 to $186.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group raised shares of Discover Financial Services from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $150.00 to $239.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Discover Financial Services from $150.00 to $146.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Discover Financial Services from $160.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Discover Financial Services from $170.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $171.71.

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.