Discover Financial Falls As Quarterly Profit Drops Below View

(RTTNews) - Shares of Discover Financial Services (DFS) are falling more than 6% Thursday morning after reporting a sharp decline in profit in the fourth quarter, below consensus, primarily due to increase in provision for credit losses.

Net income was $388 million or $1.54 per share for the fourth quarter, significantly below $1.019 billion or $3.74 per share last year. The consensus estimate of analysts polled by Thomson-Reuters stood at $2.5 per share.

Provision for credit losses was $1.909 billion, up more than $1 billion from last year.

Net interest income for the quarter, however, increased to $3.468 billion from $3.067 billion a year ago.

DFS is at $101.28 currently. It has traded in the range of $79.04 - $122.50 in the last 52 weeks.