DJ Discover Fincl Shares Drop 10% After 4Q Results Prompt Analysts to Lower Price Target

By Stephen Nakrosis

Shares of Discover Financial (DFS) declined a day after the company reported fourth-quarter financial results and following a number of stock price target reductions by analysts.

At 2:15 p.m. EST, Discover shares lost 10.01% to $77.26. Volume topped 9.1 million shares, above the 65-day average volume of 1.5 million.

For the fourth quarter, Discover reported earnings per share of $2.25 vs. $2.03 a year ago.

Analysts had been expecting fourth-quarter EPS of $2.24, according to FactSet.

Discover also said its 30+ day delinquency rate for credit card loans rose 19 basis points from the year-ago period and 12 basis points from the previous quarter to 2.62%. The credit card net charge-off rate was 3.41%, up 18 basis points from the previous year and up 9 basis points from the prior quarter, the company said.

Earlier Friday, several analysts lowered their price targets on the stock. Evercore ISI Group cuts its recommendation on the stock to underperform from in-line, as reported by Benzinga.

Wells Fargo cut its price target on Discover stock to $88 per share from $90, Morgan Stanley cuts its price target to $94 from $101 and Deutsche Bank cut its price target to $95 from $97.

Piper Sandler lowered its rating on the stock to neutral from overweight.

--Write to Stephen Nakrosis at stephen.nakrosis@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 24, 2020 14:37 ET (19:37 GMT)

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