Truist Financial Initiates Coverage on Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS)

Truist Financial started coverage on shares of Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) in a research report report published on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $233.00 target price on the financial services provider’s stock.

DFS has been the subject of a number of other reports. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on 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. Barclays raised Discover Financial Services from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $137.00 to $186.00 in a research note on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada upped 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Discover Financial Services from $170.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Discover Financial Services from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Discover Financial Services presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $160.07.

Discover Financial Services Stock Performance

Shares of DFS stock opened at $177.72 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $44.65 billion, a PE ratio of 14.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.46. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $173.93 and a 200-day moving average of $149.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.04. Discover Financial Services has a one year low of $96.46 and a one year high of $188.26.

Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $3.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.28 by $0.41. Discover Financial Services had a net margin of 13.78% and a return on equity of 21.38%. 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 business posted $2.59 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Discover Financial Services will post 13.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Discover Financial Services Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 21st. Discover Financial Services’s payout ratio is currently 22.60%.

Institutional Trading of Discover Financial Services

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of DFS. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in Discover Financial Services by 348.2% during the 2nd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 251 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 195 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Discover Financial Services by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 92,644 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $12,119,000 after buying an additional 1,937 shares during the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Discover Financial Services by 62.0% during the 2nd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 2,182 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $285,000 after buying an additional 835 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Discover Financial Services by 3,445.0% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 5,991 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $783,000 after buying an additional 5,822 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caprock Group LLC raised its holdings in Discover Financial Services by 215.9% in the 2nd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 6,914 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $905,000 after acquiring an additional 4,725 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.94% of the company’s stock.

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.