Valero (VLO) (DFS) (SCHW) (ESL) (HRB) (FL) (FNSR) EPS Estimates Changed

Valero Energy Co. (NYSE: VLO), Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS), Charles Schwab (NASDAQ: SCHW), Esterline Technologies Co. (NYSE: ESL), H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE: HRB), Foot Locker (NYSE: FL) and Finisar (NASDAQ: FNSR) EPS estimates adjusted by analysts.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) raised its EPS estimates on Valero Energy Co. (VLO). TheY have an “Equal Weight” rating and a price target of $29.00 on the company.

Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS) boosted its EPS estimates on Discover Financial Services (DFS). They have a “Neutral” rating and a price target of $28.00 on the company.

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) increased its EPS estimates on Charles Schwab (SCHW). They have a “Neutral” rating and a price target of $14.00 on the company.

Credit Suisse lowered its EPS estimates on Esterline Technologies Co. (ESL). They have an “Outperform” rating and a price target of $87.00 on the company.

Oppenheimer cut its EPS estimates on H&R Block, Inc. (HRB). They have a “Market Perform” rating on the company.

UBS AG (NYSE:UBS) raised its EPS estimates on Foot Locker (FL). They have a “Neutral” rating and a price target of $22.00 on the company.

Morgan Stanley raised its EPS estimates on Finisar (FNSR). They have an “Overweight” rating and a price target of $22.00 on the company.

Valero (VLO) (CBOE) (TXN) (CIEN) (TGT) (DFS) Estimates Changed

Valero (NYSE:VLO), CBOE Holdings (NASDAQ:CBOE), Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN), Ciena (NASDAQ:CIEN), Target (NYSE:TGT) and Discover Financial (NYSE:DFS) had estimates adjusted by analysts.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) raised its estimates on Valero (VLO) estimatesthrough 2013. They have an "Equal-weight" rating and price target of $29 on the company.

BMO increased its estimates on CBOE Holdings (CBOE) through 2011. They reiterated a "Market Perform" rating and price target of $24 on the company.

JMP cut its estimates on Texas Instruments (TXN) through 2012. They have a "Market Perform" rating on the company.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) raised its estimates on Ciena (CIEN). They have a "Buy" rating and price target of $18 on the company.

JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) lowered its estimates on Target (TGT). They have an "Overweight" rating and price target of $58 on the company.

Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS) boosted its estimates on Discover Financial (DFS) through 2013. They have a "Neutral" rating and price target of $28 on the company.

Wynn (WYNN) (DFS) (WTR) (ADES) (BBBY) (BDX) Upgraded

Wynn Resorts, Limited (NASDAQ: WYNN), Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS), Aqua America (NYSE: WTR), ADA-ES Inc (NASDAQ: ADES), Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) and Becton Dickinson And Co (NYSE: BDX) upgraded by analysts.

Discover Financial Services (DFS) was upgraded by RBC Capital from an “Outperform” rating to a “Top Pick” rating. Thy have a price target of $30.00 on the company, up from $29.00.

Wynn Resorts, Limited (WYNN) was upgraded by Barclays Capital from an “Equal Weight” rating to an “Overweight” rating.

Aqua America (WTR) was upgraded by Robert W. Baird from a “Neutral” rating to an “Outperform” rating. They have a price target of $24.00 on the company.

ADA-ES Inc. (ADES) was upgraded by Pritchard from a “Neutral” rating to a “Buy” rating.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY) was upgraded by Oppenheimer from a “Perform” rating to an “Outperform” rating. They have a price target of $63.00 on the company, up from $59.00.

Becton Dickinson And Co. (BDX) was upgraded by Mizuho from a “Neutral” rating to an “Outperform” rating.

Coverage on BP (BP) (APO) (COF) (DFS) (HMIN) Initiated

Coverage on shares of BP (NYSE:BP), Apollo Global Management (NYSE:APO), Capital One (NYSE:COF) Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) and Home Inns (NASDAQ:HMIN) was initiated by analysts.

Keefe Bruyette initiated coverage on Apollo Global Management (APO), starting them off with an "Outperform" rating.

RBC Capital initiated coverage on BP (NYSE:BP), starting them off with an "Outperform" rating.

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) initiated coverage on Capital One (COF), starting them off with a "Neutral" rating.

Goldman Sachs initiated coverage on Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS), starting them off with a "Neutral" rating.

Cowen launched coverage on Home Inns (HMIN), starting them with a "Neutral" rating.

Dividend Yields for (SCHW) (DFS) (GS) (C) (BEN)

Indicated dividend yields for Standard & Poor's 500 Index companies Charles Schwab Corp (SCHW), Discover Financial Services (DFS), Goldman Sachs (GS), Citigroup Inc (C) and Franklin Resources Inc (BEN).

These dividend data indicate dividend yields of companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index as of Saturday, April 30. The yield is determined by taking the latest declared dividend, annualized and divided by the price of the stock. Payout ratios are calculated based on latest quarterly dividend paid divided by earnings.

Charles Schwab (SCHW) has a dividend yield of 1.31 percent on a declared dividend of $0.06. The payout ratio is 29.8 percent.

Discover Financial Services (DFS) has a dividend yield of 0.97 percent on a declared dividend of $0.06. The payout ratio is 2.4 percent.

Goldman Sachs (GS) has a dividend yield of 0.93 percent on a declared dividend of $0.35. The payout ratio is 20.8 percent.

Citigroup Inc (C) has a dividend yield of 0.87 percent on a declared dividend of $0.01. The payout ratio is na.

Franklin Resources Inc (BEN) has a dividend yield of 0.77 percent on a declared dividend of $0.25. The payout ratio is 11.0 percent.

American Express (AXP) Offering New Digital Payments Service

Digital payment services are starting to be a lucrative business, and the latest entrant in the field is American Express (NYSE:AXP) with its new "Serve."

Dubbed "Serve," the service allows customers of American Express to make payments from and into one account in a variety of ways, including a charge card, credit card, debit card and bank account.

Users can use their mobile phones, online accounts or any store where American Express is accepted to make payments.

The new service targets customers who do the majority of their business with debit cards, cash or checks.

At this time only American customers can use the service, but the company said it'll roll it out to international customers throughout the next year.

You also don't have to own an American Express card in order to use "Serve," as it will work with any regular bank, debit or credit account, including competitors like Discover (NYSE:DFS) and Mastercard (NYSE:MA).

American Express closed Monday at $45.72, up $0.13, or 0.29 percent.

Google (GOOG) Migrating Towards Verifone (PAY) Mobile Payments

In a move that will provide a consistent revenue stream for Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), it's near field communications (NFC) chips in Android phones will allow customers to make purchases on credit and debit cards at stores with Verifone (NYSE:PAY) terminals using MasterCard (NYSE:MA) and Citibank (NYSE:C).

Other competitors already with plans in place are Verizon (NYSE:VZ) and AT&T (NYSE:T), which are going to use Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) in the same manner.

The Street said, "If everything goes according to plan, Google's near field communications (NFC) chips in Android phones will allow customers to make purchases on credit and debit cards at stores with Verifone(PAY) terminals.

"The move is just the latest that pits Google against its telco partners in a race to new mobile revenue streams. In Google's case however, the budding mobile payment technology may be more of an intelligence-gathering process for its advertising business."

Expectations are Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is also ready to enter this segment of the market as well.

Google was trading at $581.51, up $1.77, or 0.31 percent, as of 1:55 PM EDT. veriFone is trading at $55.35, gaining $2.55, or 4.83 percent. Mastercard was $252.16, rising $4.46, or 1.80 percent. Citigroup was at $4.43, up $0.03, or 0.78 percent.




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American Express (AXP), Bank of America (BAC), Capital One Financial (COF), JPMorgan (JPM) and Credit Card Risks

Consumers still have difficulty understanding the costs and risks of credit cards, despite some improvements made by issuers, a top regulator said Tuesday

“Our next challenge will be about further clarifying price and risk and making it easier for consumers to make direct product comparisons,” said Elizabeth Warren, Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, at the beginning of a credit card conference bringing together regulators, bankers, academics and market research groups.

The conference takes place roughly one year after many provisions of a new credit card law, the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act took effect.The consumer bureau will take responsibility for administering the statute later this summer.

In addition to raising concerns, Warren praised credit card companies for going above and beyond requirements of the statute. She cited data assembled by the consumer bureau and bank regulators that said card issuers have done better than the law requires of them when it comes to curbing opaque interest rate re-pricing and cutting over-limit fees. Read about the findings of credit card studies.

“A number of [credit card] issuers have eliminated some of the practices that can confuse customers and cost them money they reasonably did not expect to pay,” she said.

Research firm Nilson Report lists the top nine credit card issuers as American Express (NYSE:AXP), Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC), Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE:COF), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C), Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS), HSBC (NYSE:HBC), U.S. Bancorp. (NYSE:USB) and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:WFC).

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Discover Financial's (NYSE:DFS) Marketing Spend at Question

Discover Financial (NYSE:DFS) has their focus in the right place, according to FBR Capital, but the important question is how much their marketing spend will be in growing receivables.

FBR said, "Management's continued focus on growing receivables is a positive; however, achievement of this goal will have to be weighed against how significant an increase in marketing spend is required. Management felt comfortable enough about the macro environment and its capital position to highlight capital management strategies emphasizing increasing the dividend as a priority sometime in 1H11.

"We are increasing our core FY11 EPS estimate to $2.20 (from $1.85), and we are introducing our FY12 estimate at $2.10."

FBR Capital reiterates an "Outperform" on Discover Financial, which closed Friday at $18.53, up $0.36, or 1.98 percent. FBR raised their price target on Discover from $19 to $22.

Discover Financial (NYSE:DFS) Remains Attractive to Barclays (NYSE:BCS)

Saying investors need to focus on earnings power using normalized provisions, rather than adjust earnings for the "reserve release," which results in core earnings far below the GAAP results, Barclays (NYSE:BCS) considers Discover Financial (NYSE:DFS) as attractive.

Barclays said, "DFS's 4Q10 earnings beat was due exclusively to the large $414MM reserve release, but after accounting for a number of non-recurring items, it appears revenues were in-line, expenses were a little high, but credit was better than expected, so our view of normalized earnings is unchanged. Some investors adjust earnings for the "reserve release" and get "core" earnings well below the GAAP results, but we believe it is important to focus on the earnings power using normalized provisions, which we estimate at $500MM-$600MM per quarter (equates to a 4%-5% of annual charge-off rate). Using this level of credit costs along with another 40 bps of NIM compression and modest loan growth for 2011, we arrive at EPS of $2.00 for 2011 and $2.20 for 2012. With the shares trading at only 8.4x our 2012 estimate, we continue to view the stock as attractive."

Barclays reiterates an "Overweight" on Discover Financial, which closed Friday at $18.02, down $0.51, or 2.75 percent. Barclays has a price target on them of $23.