Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC Increases Position in Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS)

Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) by 20.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 19,639 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,339 shares during the quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Discover Financial Services were worth $2,207,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of DFS. Boston Partners lifted its stake in shares of Discover Financial Services by 56.5% in the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 8,597,250 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $743,663,000 after buying an additional 3,102,119 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Discover Financial Services by 4.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,686,848 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $492,652,000 after buying an additional 238,498 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Discover Financial Services by 0.8% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,578,053 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $223,337,000 after buying an additional 20,333 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Discover Financial Services by 30.9% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,233,324 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $193,473,000 after buying an additional 526,951 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Eminence Capital LP lifted its stake in shares of Discover Financial Services by 42.3% in the third quarter. Eminence Capital LP now owns 1,343,975 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $116,429,000 after buying an additional 399,209 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.94% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on DFS. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $140.00 target price (up previously from $117.00) on shares of Discover Financial Services in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Discover Financial Services from $127.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Discover Financial Services from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $105.00 to $133.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Discover Financial Services from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Discover Financial Services from $116.00 to $104.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Discover Financial Services has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $126.29.

Discover Financial Services Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DFS traded up $2.03 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $127.70. The stock had a trading volume of 1,136,120 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,202,638. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $123.80 and a 200-day moving average of $107.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 1.05. The company has a market capitalization of $32.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.45. Discover Financial Services has a 12-month low of $79.04 and a 12-month high of $131.65.

Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The financial services provider reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.98 by ($1.88). The company had revenue of $4.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.07 billion. Discover Financial Services had a net margin of 10.56% and a return on equity of 16.74%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.58 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Discover Financial Services will post 11.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Discover Financial Services Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 23rd will be paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 22nd. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.19%. Discover Financial Services’s payout ratio is 31.93%.

Discover Financial Services 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; 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.