Capital One Q4 results fails to impress the street

Shares of the credit card issuer Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF) was down more than 4% after the bell as the firm’s fourth quarter results failed to beat analyst estimates. The company’s earnings were impacted by flat fourth quarter revenues coupled with margin compression and increased expenses.

Fourth quarter profits came in at $1.26 billion compared to a loss of $971 million due to increased tax provisions last year. The bank’s top line of $7.01 billion was flat with prior year period and fell short of $7.08 billion expected by the street. On an adjusted basis, earnings were $1.87 per share compared to $1.62 per share reported last year. But quarterly EPS was much below than the $2.38 forecasted by the analysts.

On the revenue front, net interest income rose modestly to $5.82 billion, while non-interest income was down about 0.5% to $1.19 billion due to drop in service fees and unrealized losses offset by 4% improvement in interchange fees.

Net interest margin (NIM), one of the key metrics tracked by the street, was down 5 basis points to 6.96% compared to last year. Provision for bad loans decreased 15% over the prior year period but has jumped 29% sequentially which remains a concern for investors about the credit quality.

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Credit card division grew 2% to $4.5 billion while consumer and commercial segment saw its top line jump 41% and 35% respectively.

Marketing expense came in at $831 million, witnessing 80% jump compared to last year and operating expense decreased modestly to $3.3 billion.

On the asset quality side, the charge-off ratio decreased 22 basis points to 2.67% compared to 2.89% reported last year. Non-performing assets (NPA), another vital metric of interest to analysts, was 0.35%, down six basis points compared to 0.41% reported in the prior year period.

The company’s stock is down over 21% over the last 12 months and it has increased 10% in 2019.