Capital One Profit Beats Estimates Due To Lower Provision

Capital One Financial Corp's (NYSE:COF) quarterly profit rose about 10 percent, beating estimates, as the credit card issuer set aside less money to cover soured loans.

The company's net income available to common stockholders rose to $1.14 billion, or $1.96 per share, for the first quarter ended March 31, from $1.04 billion, or $1.77 per share, a year earlier.

Total net revenue fell about 3.3 percent to $5.37 billion.

The company cut its provision for bad loans by about 17 percent to $735 million in the quarter.

Analysts on average expected earnings of $1.69 per share on revenue of $5.44 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S/.

Capital One's net charge-off rate, the percentage of loans written off as unrecoverable, was 1.92 percent, a decrease of 28 basis points from a year earlier.

The company's net interest income, the difference between what banks pay out on loans and earn on deposits, fell about 5 percent to $4.35 billion.

McLean, Virginia-based Capital One shares closed at $75.16 on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

Capital One's shares are down about 2.7 percent since the beginning of the year, trailing the broader S&P 500 Index , which has gained about 1.6 percent.

(Reporting by Avik Das in Bangalore; Editing by Simon Jennings)