Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in DFS. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its position in shares of Discover Financial Services by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank acquired a new stake in PNC Financial Services Group during the fourth quarter valued at about $313,000. Breton Hill Capital Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of PNC Financial Services Group during the fourth quarter valued at about $807,000. Boston Partners raised its position in shares of Discover Financial Services by 20.9% in the fourth quarter.
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According to Zacks, “Discover Financial Services’ exposure to competition, lawsuit damages and regulatory challenges as well as weakness in the Payment Services segment and escalating expenses pose as headwinds for the company”. Highstreet Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,913 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,040,000 after buying an additional 3,942 shares during the period.
Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 27th.
About 550,417 shares traded hands.
In taking a look at technical levels, shares are trading 5.53% away from the 50 day simple moving average and -3.91% away from the 200 day simple moving average.
Analysts are expecting average earnings estimates of $1.70 for the current quarter based on the opinion of 31 analysts, relating to high estimates of $1.78 and low estimates of $1.66, however the company reported $1.75 earnings per share for the same quarter during past year. In the fourth quarter, PNC reported net income of $957 million, or $1.87 per share. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.84 EPS.
Revenue was $3.67 billion, down from $3.73 billion a year earlier. Revenue for the period is expected to total almost $8.93B versus 8.74B in the preceding year.
In terms of earnings per share, 29 analysts have a 1.82 EPS mean target for the quarter ending Jun-16, for the quarter ending Sep-16, 29 analysts have a 1.85 EPS mean target and for the quarter ending Sep-16 there are 31 estimates of 7.30 EPS. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.51 per share. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.40%. Vetr cut Discover Financial Services from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $56.79 price objective on the stock.in a research report on Wednesday, December 16th. Oppenheimer reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of PNC Financial Services Group in a research note on Wednesday, January 20th. The rating score is on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 stands for strong buy and 5 stands for strong sell. This consensus number is made up of covering analysts polled by Zacks Research.
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In other news, Director Daniel Hesse bought 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 8th.
