Wells Fargo & Company MN Trims Holdings in Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS)

Wells Fargo & Company MN decreased its stake in shares of Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS - Free Report) by 23.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 368,419 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 115,601 shares during the quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN owned 0.15% of Discover Financial Services worth $63,821,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Discover Financial Services during the fourth quarter valued at about $724,720,000. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of Discover Financial Services in the 4th quarter valued at $351,766,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Discover Financial Services by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,045,208 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $5,377,961,000 after buying an additional 290,937 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in Discover Financial Services in the fourth quarter valued at about $39,067,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Discover Financial Services in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,489,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.94% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DFS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Discover Financial Services from $193.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Discover Financial Services from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. UBS Group upgraded Discover Financial Services from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $150.00 to $239.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Truist Financial lowered their price target on Discover Financial Services from $262.00 to $219.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Discover Financial Services from $185.00 to $214.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Discover Financial Services has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $188.40.

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Discover Financial Services Trading Up 2.1 %

NYSE DFS traded up $3.26 on Monday, reaching $160.30. The company had a trading volume of 163,382 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,576,638. Discover Financial Services has a fifty-two week low of $119.31 and a fifty-two week high of $205.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The firm has a market cap of $40.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a 50 day moving average of $175.40 and a two-hundred day moving average of $172.09.

Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The financial services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $1.98. Discover Financial Services had a net margin of 17.29% and a return on equity of 26.18%. Analysts forecast that Discover Financial Services will post 13.88 EPS for the current year.

Discover Financial Services Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 23rd will be paid a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 23rd. Discover Financial Services's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 17.54%.

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.