Brokers Issue Forecasts for Discover Financial Services’ Q3 2017 Earnings (NYSE:DFS)

Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) – Oppenheimer Holdings dropped their Q3 2017 earnings estimates for shares of Discover Financial Services in a report released on Wednesday. Oppenheimer Holdings analyst B. Chittenden now expects that the financial services provider will post earnings of $1.50 per share for the quarter, down from their previous estimate of $1.59. Oppenheimer Holdings currently has a “Buy” rating and a $69.00 price target on the stock. Oppenheimer Holdings also issued estimates for Discover Financial Services’ Q4 2017 earnings at $1.59 EPS, FY2017 earnings at $5.92 EPS and FY2018 earnings at $6.50 EPS.

Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. The financial services provider reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.05. Discover Financial Services had a net margin of 20.91% and a return on equity of 21.00%. The company had revenue of $2.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.40 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.47 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. ILLEGAL ACTIVITY NOTICE: This piece of content was originally posted by [[site]] and is the sole property of of [[site]]. If you are reading this piece of content on another site, it was illegally stolen and reposted in violation of US & international copyright & trademark legislation. The original version of this piece of content can be viewed at [[permalink]].

DFS has been the topic of several other reports. Deutsche Bank AG lowered shares of Discover Financial Services from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $87.00 to $71.00 in a research note on Monday, May 1st. Instinet restated a “buy” rating and set a $86.00 price objective (down from $88.00) on shares of Discover Financial Services in a research note on Saturday, April 29th. BidaskClub upgraded shares of Discover Financial Services from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 10th. Jefferies Group LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective on shares of Discover Financial Services in a research note on Friday, June 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated a “hold” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of Discover Financial Services in a research note on Thursday, June 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Discover Financial Services presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $74.83.

Shares of Discover Financial Services (NYSE DFS) opened at 60.26 on Friday. Discover Financial Services has a 1-year low of $53.91 and a 1-year high of $74.33. The company has a 50 day moving average of $61.26 and a 200 day moving average of $65.18. The company has a market cap of $22.91 billion, a PE ratio of 10.29 and a beta of 1.47.

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. V Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Discover Financial Services during the second quarter worth $101,000. Orrstown Financial Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of Discover Financial Services by 64.2% in the first quarter. Orrstown Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,716 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $117,000 after buying an additional 671 shares during the period. FNY Managed Accounts LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Discover Financial Services during the first quarter worth $124,000. Perigon Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Discover Financial Services by 2.3% in the first quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,146 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $147,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. Finally, Financial Architects Inc increased its stake in shares of Discover Financial Services by 65.1% in the second quarter. Financial Architects Inc now owns 2,600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $162,000 after buying an additional 1,025 shares during the period. 84.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

In other news, CEO David W. Nelms sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.18, for a total transaction of $1,865,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,674,732 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $104,134,835.76. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Carlos Minetti sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.42, for a total transaction of $499,360.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 205,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,805,400.58. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 103,516 shares of company stock valued at $6,456,648. 0.96% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Discover Financial Services announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, June 28th that permits the company to buyback $2.23 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to reacquire up to 9.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 24th will be issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 22nd. This is an increase from Discover Financial Services’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. Discover Financial Services’s dividend payout ratio is 20.73%.

Discover Financial Services Company Profile

Discover Financial Services (DFS) is a direct banking and payment services company. The Company is a bank holding company, as well as a financial holding company. The Company operates through two segments: Direct Banking and Payment Services. It provides direct banking products and services, and payment services through its subsidiaries.