Is Discover Financial Stock a Good Investment?

Discover Financial Investment Advice

  DFS
To provide specific investment advice or recommendations on Discover Financial Services stock, we recommend investors consider the following general factors when evaluating Discover Financial Services. This will help you to make an informed decision on whether to include Discover Financial in one of your diversified portfolios:
  • Examine Discover Financial's financial health by looking at its balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement. Analyze key financial ratios, such as Price-to-Earnings (P/E), Price-to-Sales (P/S), and Price-to-Book (P/B), to determine whether the stock is fairly valued or over/undervalued.
  • Research Discover Financial's leadership team and their track record. Good management can help Discover Financial navigate difficult times and make strategic decisions that benefit shareholders and increases its net worth.
  • Consider the overall health of the Consumer Finance space and any emerging trends that could impact Discover Financial's business and its evolving consumer preferences.
  • Compare Discover Financial's performance and market position to its competitors. Analyze how Discover Financial is positioned in terms of product offerings, innovation, and market share.
  • Check if Discover Financial pays a dividend and its dividend yield and payout ratio.
  • Review what financial analysts are saying about Discover Financial's stock and their price targets. However, remember that analysts' opinions can vary, and their predictions may not always be accurate.
It's important to note that investing in Discover Financial Services stock, carries risks, and you should carefully consider your investment goals and risk tolerance before making any investment decisions. Also, remember that it's important for investors to have a long-term perspective and a well-diversified portfolio to manage the impact of stock market volatility on their investments. Below is a detailed guide on how to decide if Discover Financial Services is a good investment.
 
Sell
 
Buy
Strong Sell
Macroaxis provides advice on Discover Financial to complement and cross-verify current analyst consensus on Discover Financial Services. Our investment recommendation engine determines the company's potential to grow exclusively from the perspective of an investor's current risk tolerance and investing horizon. To make sure Discover Financial is not overpriced, please confirm all Discover Financial fundamentals, including its cash flow from operations, working capital, and the relationship between the cash per share and number of employees . Given that Discover Financial has a price to earning of 7.05 X, we urge you to verify Discover Financial Services market performance and probability of bankruptcy to ensure the company can sustain itself in the current economic cycle given your prevailing risk tolerance and investing horizon.

Market Performance

Very WeakDetails

Volatility

Very steadyDetails

Hype Condition

Low keyDetails

Current Valuation

Fairly ValuedDetails

Odds Of Distress

Below AverageDetails

Economic Sensitivity

Slowly supersedes the marketDetails

Investor Sentiment

AlarmedDetails

Analyst Consensus

BuyDetails

Financial Strenth (F Score)

HealthyDetails

Financial Leverage

Not RatedDetails

Reporting Quality (M-Score)

Possible ManipulatorDetails

Examine Discover Financial Stock

Researching Discover Financial's stock involves analyzing various aspects of the company and its industry to make an informed investment decision. The key areas to focus on are fundamentals, business model and competitive advantage. It is also important to analyze trends in revenue, net income, and cash flow, as well as key financial ratios, such as price-to-earnings (P/E), price-to-sales (P/S), and debt-to-equity (D/E). About 85.0% of the company shares are held by institutions such as insurance companies. The book value of Discover Financial was currently reported as 67.12. The company recorded earning per share (EPS) of 17.34. Discover Financial last dividend was issued on the 20th of February 2025. The entity had 1:5 split on the January 31, 2014.
To determine if Discover Financial is a good investment, evaluating the company's potential for future growth is also very important. This may include expanding into new markets, launching new products or services, or improving operational efficiency. Companies with strong growth prospects can be more attractive investments. This aspect of the research should be conducted in the context of the overall market and industry in which the company operates and should include an analysis of growth potential, competitive landscape, and any regulatory or economic factors that could impact the business. Some of the essential points regarding Discover Financial's research are outlined below:
Discover Financial generated a negative expected return over the last 90 days
Over 85.0% of the company shares are held by institutions such as insurance companies
On 6th of March 2025 Discover Financial paid $ 0.7 per share dividend to its current shareholders
Latest headline from finance.yahoo.com: Turtle Creek Asset Management Exited its Position in Discover Financial Services
Discover Financial uses earnings reports to provide investors with an update of all three financial statements, including the income statement, the balance sheet, and the cash flow statement. Therefore, it is also crucial when considering investing in Discover Financial Services. Every quarterly earnings report provides investors with an overview of sales, expenses, and net income for the most recent period. It also may provide a comparison to Discover Financial's previous reporting period. The quarterly earnings reports are usually disseminated to the public via Form 10-Q, which is a legal document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission every quarter.
17th of April 2024
Upcoming Quarterly Report
View
17th of July 2024
Next Financial Report
View
31st of March 2024
Next Fiscal Quarter End
View
15th of January 2025
Next Fiscal Year End
View
31st of December 2023
Last Quarter Report
View
31st of December 2023
Last Financial Announcement
View
Earnings surprises can significantly impact Discover Financial's stock price both in the short term and over time. Negative earnings surprises usually result in a price decline. However, it has been seen that positive earnings surprises lead to an immediate rise in a stock's price and a gradual increase over time. This is why we often hear news about some companies beating earning projections. Financial analysts spend a large amount of time predicting earnings per share (EPS) along with other important future indicators. Many analysts use forecasting models, management guidance, and additional fundamental information to derive an EPS estimate. Below are the table of largest EPS Surprises Discover Financial's investors have experienced.
Reported
Fiscal Date
Estimated EPS
Reported EPS
Surprise
2009-12-17
2009-09-300.140.12-0.0214 
2007-12-20
2007-09-300.360.40.0411 
2008-06-26
2008-03-310.370.420.0513 
2010-09-20
2010-06-300.380.470.0923 
2008-03-19
2007-12-310.40.50.125 
2009-06-18
2009-03-31-0.3-0.180.1240 
2010-03-16
2009-12-31-0.08-0.22-0.14175 
2016-01-27
2015-12-311.31.14-0.1612 

Discover Financial Target Price Consensus

Discover target price is determined by taking all analyst projections and averaging them out. There is no one specific way to measure analysts' performance other than comparing it to past results via a very sophisticated attribution analysis. Discover Financial's target price projections below should be used in combination with other traditional price prediction techniques such as stock price forecasting, investor sentiment analysis, technical analysis, earnings estimate, and various momentum models.
   17  Buy
Most Discover analysts issue ratings four times a year, at intervals of three months. Ratings are usually accompanied by a target price to help potential investors understand Discover stock's fair price compared to its market value. Analysts arrive at stock ratings after researching the public financial statements of Discover Financial, talking to its executives and customers, or listening to those companies' conference calls.
Macroaxis Advice   Exposure   Valuation

Discover Financial Target Price Projection

Discover Financial's current and average target prices are 166.14 and 189.62, respectively. The current price of Discover Financial is the price at which Discover Financial Services is currently trading. On the other hand, Discover Financial's target price is what analysts think the stock is worth or could sell for in the future. The more significant the discrepancy between the two prices, the more it stimulates investors to act.

Current Price

Discover Financial Market Quote on 28th of March 2025

Low Price164.81Odds
High Price172.09Odds

166.14

Target Price

Analyst Consensus On Discover Financial Target Price

Low Estimate172.55Odds
High Estimate210.47Odds

189.6154

Historical Lowest Forecast  172.55 Target Price  189.62 Highest Forecast  210.47
Note that most analysts generally publish their price targets in research reports on specific companies, along with recommendations for the company's stock.Although price targets are often quoted in the financial news media, there could be a delay between the publication of the latest analyst outlook on Discover Financial Services and the information provided on this page.

Discover Financial Analyst Ratings

Discover Financial's analyst stock recommendations are determined by taking an average estimate of all analysts we track and classifying them as Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Strong Sell, or Sell. Ratings generally communicate what analysts sense about Discover Financial stock, and they use a lot of effort and time to analyze it and arrive at a rating. That suggests that analyst recommendations are the outcome of an objective and thorough examination of Discover Financial's financials, market performance, and future outlook by experienced professionals. Discover Financial's historical ratings below, therefore, can serve as a valuable tool for investors.

Know Discover Financial's Top Institutional Investors

Have you ever been surprised when a price of an equity instrument such as Discover Financial is soaring high without any particular reason? This is usually happening because many institutional investors are aggressively trading Discover Financial Services backward and forwards among themselves. Discover Financial's institutional investor refers to the entity that pools money to purchase Discover Financial's securities or originate loans. Institutional investors include commercial and private banks, credit unions, insurance companies, pension funds, hedge funds, endowments, and mutual funds. Operating companies that invest excess capital in these types of assets may also be included in the term and may influence corporate governance by exercising voting rights in their investments.
Shares
Northern Trust Corp2024-12-31
2.7 M
Brave Warrior Advisors Llc2024-12-31
2.5 M
Jpmorgan Chase & Co2024-12-31
2.2 M
Ubs Group Ag2024-12-31
2.1 M
Ubs Asset Mgmt Americas Inc2024-12-31
2.1 M
C2p Capital Advisory Group Llc Dba Prosperity Capital Advisors2024-12-31
M
Balyasny Asset Management Llc2024-12-31
1.9 M
Bank Of America Corp2024-12-31
1.9 M
Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership2024-12-31
1.9 M
Vanguard Group Inc2024-12-31
31 M
Blackrock Inc2024-12-31
21.8 M
Note, although Discover Financial's institutional investors appear to be way more sophisticated than retail investors, it remains unclear if professional active investment managers can reliably enhance risk-adjusted returns by an amount that exceeds fees and expenses.

Discover Financial's market capitalization trends

The company currently falls under 'Large-Cap' category with a total capitalization of 41.8 B.

Market Cap

16.96 Billion

Discover Financial's profitablity analysis

Last ReportedProjected for Next Year
Return On Tangible Assets 0.03  0.02 
Return On Capital Employed 0.44  0.23 
Return On Assets 0.03  0.02 
Return On Equity 0.25  0.17 
The company has Net Profit Margin of 0.35 %, which implies that it may need a different competitive strategy as even a very small decline in it revenue may erase profits and result in a net loss. This is way below average. In the same way, it shows Net Operating Margin of 0.51 %, which entails that for every 100 dollars of revenue, it generated $0.51 of operating income.
Determining Discover Financial's profitability involves analyzing its financial statements and using various financial metrics to determine if Discover Financial is a good buy. For example, gross profit margin measures Discover Financial's profitability after accounting for the cost of goods sold, while net profit margin measures profitability after accounting for all expenses. Other important metrics include return on assets, return on equity, and free cash flow. By reviewing multiple sources and metrics, you can gain a complete picture of Discover Financial's profitability and make more informed investment decisions.

Discover Financial's Earnings Breakdown by Geography

Please note, the imprecision that can be found in Discover Financial's accounting process means that the reasonable investor should take a skeptical approach toward the financial statement analysis of Discover Financial Services. Check Discover Financial's Beneish M Score to see the likelihood of Discover Financial's management manipulating its earnings.

Evaluate Discover Financial's management efficiency

Discover Financial has Return on Asset of 0.0303 % which means that on every $100 spent on assets, it made $0.0303 of profit. This is way below average. In the same way, it shows a return on shareholders' equity (ROE) of 0.282 %, implying that it generated $0.282 on every 100 dollars invested. Discover Financial's management efficiency ratios could be used to measure how well Discover Financial manages its routine affairs as well as how well it operates its assets and liabilities. Return On Tangible Assets is likely to drop to 0.02 in 2025. Return On Capital Employed is likely to drop to 0.23 in 2025. At this time, Discover Financial's Non Current Assets Total are comparatively stable compared to the past year. Other Current Assets is likely to gain to about 4.5 B in 2025, whereas Other Assets are likely to drop slightly above 9.9 B in 2025.
Last ReportedProjected for Next Year
Book Value Per Share 71.42  74.99 
Tangible Book Value Per Share 70.40  73.92 
Enterprise Value Over EBITDA 5.50  6.88 
Price Book Value Ratio 2.43  1.74 
Enterprise Value Multiple 5.50  6.88 
Price Fair Value 2.43  1.74 
Enterprise Value16.2 B14.4 B
The strategic decisions made by Discover Financial management significantly impact its financial stability and market performance. Evaluating these factors helps determine whether the stock is a worthwhile investment.
Dividend Yield
0.0169
Forward Dividend Yield
0.0169
Forward Dividend Rate
2.8
Beta
1.448

Basic technical analysis of Discover Stock

As of the 28th of March, Discover Financial shows the Downside Deviation of 2.9, coefficient of variation of 15428.28, and Mean Deviation of 1.87. Discover Financial technical analysis allows you to utilize historical prices and volume patterns in order to determine a pattern that computes the direction of the firm's future prices. Please confirm Discover Financial variance, value at risk, as well as the relationship between the Value At Risk and skewness to decide if Discover Financial is priced favorably, providing market reflects its regular price of 166.14 per share. Given that Discover Financial has jensen alpha of 0.013, we urge you to verify Discover Financial Services's prevailing market performance to make sure the company can sustain itself at a future point.

Discover Financial's insider trading activities

Some recent studies suggest that insider trading raises the cost of capital for securities issuers and decreases overall economic growth. Trading by specific Discover Financial insiders, such as employees or executives, is commonly permitted as long as it does not rely on Discover Financial's material information that is not in the public domain. Local jurisdictions usually require such trading to be reported in order to monitor insider transactions. In many U.S. states, trading conducted by corporate officers, key employees, directors, or significant shareholders must be reported to the regulator or publicly disclosed, usually within a few business days of the trade. In these cases Discover Financial insiders are required to file a Form 4 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) when buying or selling shares of their own companies.

Discover Financial's Outstanding Corporate Bonds

Discover Financial issues bonds to finance its operations. Corporate bonds make up one of the largest components of the U.S. bond market, which is considered the world's largest securities market. Discover Financial uses the proceeds from bond sales for a wide variety of purposes, including financing ongoing mergers and acquisitions, buying new equipment, investing in research and development, buying back their own stock, paying dividends to shareholders, and even refinancing existing debt. Most Discover bonds can be classified according to their maturity, which is the date when Discover Financial Services has to pay back the principal to investors. Maturities can be short-term, medium-term, or long-term (more than ten years). Longer-term bonds usually offer higher interest rates but may entail additional risks.

Understand Discover Financial's technical and predictive indicators

Using predictive indicators to make investment decisions involves analyzing Discover Financial's various financial and market-based factors to help forecast future trends and identify investment opportunities. Select the indicators that are most relevant to your investment strategy. Each indicator has its own strengths and weaknesses, so it's essential to combine multiple indicators to get a more comprehensive view of the market and reduce the risk of making poor decisions based on limited data.

Consider Discover Financial's intraday indicators

Discover Financial intraday indicators are useful technical analysis tools used by many experienced traders. Just like the conventional technical analysis, daily indicators help intraday investors to analyze the price movement with the timing of Discover Financial stock daily movement. By combining multiple daily indicators into a single trading strategy, you can limit your risk while still earning strong returns on your managed positions.

Discover Financial Corporate Filings

8K
14th of March 2025
Report filed with the SEC to announce major events that shareholders should know about
ViewVerify
10K
7th of March 2025
An amendment to a previously filed Form 10-K
ViewVerify
10K
20th of February 2025
Annual report required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of a company financial performance
ViewVerify
10th of February 2025
Other Reports
ViewVerify
Discover Financial time-series forecasting models is one of many Discover Financial's stock analysis techniques aimed to predict future share value based on previously observed values. Time-series forecasting models ae widely used for non-stationary data. Non-stationary data are called the data whose statistical properties e.g. the mean and standard deviation are not constant over time but instead, these metrics vary over time. These non-stationary Discover Financial's historical data is usually called time-series. Some empirical experimentation suggests that the statistical forecasting models outperform the models based exclusively on fundamental analysis to predict the direction of the market movement and maximize returns from investment trading.

Discover Stock media impact

Far too much social signal, news, headlines, and media speculation about Discover Financial that are available to investors today. That information is available publicly through Discover media outlets and privately through word of mouth or via Discover internal channels. However, regardless of the origin, that massive amount of Discover data is challenging to quantify into actionable patterns, especially for investors that are not very sophisticated with ever-evolving tools and techniques used in the investment management field.
A primary focus of Discover Financial news analysis is to determine if its current price reflects all relevant headlines and social signals impacting the current market conditions. A news analyst typically looks at the history of Discover Financial relative headlines and hype rather than examining external drivers such as technical or fundamental data. It is believed that price action tends to repeat itself due to investors' collective, patterned thinking related to Discover Financial's headlines and news coverage data. This data is often completely overlooked or insufficiently analyzed for actionable insights to drive Discover Financial alpha.

Discover Financial Sentiment by Major News Outlets

Investor sentiment, mood or attitude towards Discover Financial can have a significant impact on its stock price or the market as a whole. This sentiment can be positive or negative, and various factors, such as economic indicators, news events, or market trends, can influence it. When investor sentiment is positive, investors are more likely to buy stocks, increasing demand and increasing the stock price. Positive investor sentiment can be driven by good news about the company or the broader market, such as solid earnings reports or positive economic data.
Note that negative investor sentiment can cause investors to sell stocks, leading to a decrease in demand and a drop in the stock price. Negative sentiment can be driven by factors such as poor earnings reports, negative news about the company or industry, or broader economic concerns. It's important to note that investor sentiment is just one of many factors that can affect stock prices. Other factors, such as company performance, industry trends, and global economic conditions, can also play a significant role in determining the value of a stock.

Discover Financial Historical Investor Sentiment

Investor biases related to Discover Financial's public news can be used to forecast risks associated with an investment in Discover. The trend in average sentiment can be used to explain how an investor holding Discover can time the market purely based on public headlines and social activities around Discover Financial Services. Please note that most equities that are difficult to arbitrage are affected by market sentiment the most.
Discover Financial's market sentiment shows the aggregated news analyzed to detect positive and negative mentions from the text and comments. The data is normalized to provide daily scores for Discover Financial and other traded tickers. The bigger the bubble, the more accurate the estimated score. Higher bars for a given day show more participation in the average Discover Financial news discussions. The higher the estimate score, the more favorable the investor's outlook on Discover Financial.

Discover Financial Maximum Pain Price Across June 20th 2025 Option Contracts

Discover Financial's options can also be used to analyze investors' bias and current market sentiment in the context of behavioral finance. For example, Max pain usually refers to a trading concept that asserts that market manipulation can cause the market price of Discover Financial close to the expiration of its current option contract to expire worthlessly. According to most research, about 35% of options are not executed, with roughly 50% traded out before expiration. So, Max pain occurs when market makers reach a net favorable position across all options at a strike price where option holders stand to lose the most money. By contrast, option sellers may reap the most after selling more options than buying, causing them to expire worthlessly. Please continue to view the detailed analysis of Discover Financial's options.

Discover Financial Corporate Directors

Gregory CaseIndependent DirectorProfile
Mary BushIndependent DirectorProfile
Jennifer WongIndependent DirectorProfile
Joseph EazorIndependent DirectorProfile

Additional Tools for Discover Stock Analysis

When running Discover Financial's price analysis, check to measure Discover Financial's market volatility, profitability, liquidity, solvency, efficiency, growth potential, financial leverage, and other vital indicators. We have many different tools that can be utilized to determine how healthy Discover Financial is operating at the current time. Most of Discover Financial's value examination focuses on studying past and present price action to predict the probability of Discover Financial's future price movements. You can analyze the entity against its peers and the financial market as a whole to determine factors that move Discover Financial's price. Additionally, you may evaluate how the addition of Discover Financial to your portfolios can decrease your overall portfolio volatility.