Capital One Financial Posts Higher 4Q Profit As Lending Increases

By Elias Schisgall

Capital One Financial reported a higher profit in the fourth quarter as credit-card and consumer lending trended upwards.

The credit-card company Thursday reported a profit of $2.13 billion, or $3.26 a share, compared with $1.1 billion, or $2.67 a share, in the year-ago quarter.

Stripping out certain one-time items, including charges from Capital One's acquisition of Discover, earnings were $3.86 a share, missing Wall Street's expectation of $4.14 a share, according to FactSet.

The company reported revenue of $15.58 billion, up from $10.19 billion a year earlier. Analysts were expecting $15.47 billion in revenue.

Provision for credit losses increased to $4.14 billion, the company said.

The company said credit-card period-end loans rose 3% to $279.6 billion in the quarter, while consumer banking loans increased 2% to $84.8 billion.

Delinquency rates for credit cards and consumer banking each fell slightly year over year, to 3.93% and 5.17%, respectively.

Capital One said Thursday it plans to acquire Brex, a financial technology company specializing in corporate credit cards, for $5.15 billion in a cash and stock deal. The Brex deal marks another major buy for Capital One after it completed the acquisition Discover Financial for $35.3 billion last year.

The Discover acquisition incurred pre-tax charges in the fourth quarter of about $898 million, or $1.07 a share, the company said.

Write to Elias Schisgall at elias.schisgall@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 22, 2026 16:55 ET (21:55 GMT)