Discover Financial Services Missed 2015 Q4 Earnings, But Beat Revenue Estimates

Discover Financial Services ((DFS - Analyst Report)) released their fourth quarter fiscal 2015 earnings results after market close yesterday, posting earnings of $1.14 and revenue of $2.205 billion.
 
Currently, DFS has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), but it is subject to change following the release of the company’s latest earnings report. Here are 5 key statistics from this just announced report below.
 
Discover:
                           
1. Missed earnings estimates. The company posted $1.14, missing our Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.30
 
2. Beat revenue estimates. The company saw revenue figures of $2.205 billion, surpassing our estimate of $1.802 billion.
 
3. Credit card loans grew $1.8 billion, or 3.1%, to $57.9 billion and Discover card sales volume increased 2.6% from the prior year or approximately 5% excluding gas purchases.

4. “We once again delivered a solid return on equity in the fourth quarter. While we achieved record annual originations in both Student Loans and Personal Loans, card loan growth was at the low end of our target range, slower than we’d like,” said David Nelms, chairman and CEO of Discover. “We are taking steps to accelerate card loan growth in 2016 while staying disciplined on credit and continuing to execute on our Payments strategy.”
 
5. DFS was only up 0.04% as of 5:20PM ET in after hours trading shortly after its earnings report was released.
 
Here’s a graph that looks at Discover’s revenue totals over the last five quarters:
 

Discover Financial Services (DFS - Analyst Report) Revenue – Last 5 Quarters | FindTheCompany

 
Discover Financial Services operates the Discover Card with more than fifty million card members, the Discover Network with millions of merchant and cash access locations, and the Goldfish credit card business in the United Kingdom. Discover Financial Services also operates the pulse ATM/debit network, which serves more than four thousand four hundred financial institutions and includes sixty thousand ATMs, as well as POS terminals, nationwide. Discover is headquartered in Riverwoods, Illinois.