By Anne Steele

Capital One Financial Corp.'s profit dropped 14% in the final quarter of the year amid a jump in protection for loan losses, though revenue improved as the lender registered loan growth.

Shares fell 2.2% to $86.80 in after-hours trading. Capital One, one of the country's largest credit-card lenders, also offers traditional bank accounts, mortgages, auto loans and commercial loans.

Capital One said period-end loans held for investment rose 3% in the fourth quarter to $245.6 billion; however, the company's provision for credit losses shot up 27% to $1.75 billion from a year earlier.

In all for the December quarter, Capital One posted a profit of $791 million, or $1.45 a share, compared with $920 million, or $1.58 a share, a year earlier. Revenue climbed 6% to $6.57 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $1.60 a share on revenue of $6.67 billion.

"In 2016, Capital One posted a second consecutive year of double-digit growth in domestic card loans and purchase volume," Chief Executive Richard Fairbank said in a news release, strong growth over the past two years and a reduced share count should help the company to deliver "solid EPS growth in 2017."

Write to Anne Steele at Anne.Steele@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 25, 2017 02:47 ET (07:47 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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