Discover Financial's Quarterly Profit Drops on Tax Hit -- Earnings Review

Discover Financial Services (DFS) reported fourth-quarter results on Wednesday. Here's what you need to know:

EARNINGS: Fourth-quarter profit dropped to $387 million, or 99 cents a share, from $563 million, or $1.40 a share a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected 85 cents a share.

TAX LAW: The company recorded one-time charges of $189 million related to recent changes to U.S. tax law that lowered profit by 52 cents a share.

REVENUE: Revenue, net of interest expense, rose to $2.61 billion from $2.36 billion a year earlier, beating analysts' estimates of $2.59 billion.

LOANS: Discover reported a 9% increase in total loans to $84.2 billion, and set aside $678 million for possible loan losses, a 17% increase from a year earlier.

CHARGE-OFF RATE: The card company reported a total net charge-off rate, which reflects losses on credit cards, personal and student loans, of 2.85% in the latest period, compared with 2.63% in the previous quarter and 2.31% a year earlier. Net charge-offs for credit cards rose to 3.03% in the latest period, compared with 2.80% in the previous quarter.

DEPOSITS: Consumer deposits rose 9% to $39.4 billion.

STOCK: Shares, up 13% over the past 12 months, edged up to $78.79 in after-hours trading.

Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 24, 2018 17:02 ET (22:02 GMT)