# Capital One Stock Q3 2026: EPS Up 16% as Charge-Offs Fall
> Capital One stock Q3 2026: EPS up 16% to $5.61, card charge-offs down to 3.98%, $1.8bn of Discover synergies and a 13.8% CET1. COF earnings and risks.

Agent brief for this QSI Labs research article. Prefer this file for quick facts; use the HTML page for the full human layout, or article.md for the full text.

## Facts
- Ticker: COF
- QSILabs fair value: $215.00 USD
- Price: $210.77 (as of 2026-11-02)
- As of: Q3 2026 results (quarter ended 2026-09-30, reported 2026-10-20; Form 10-Q not yet filed); price as of 2026-11-02 close
- Fiscal period: Q3 2026 (July-September 2026)
- Published: 2026-11-02
- Updated: 2026-11-02
- Author: QSI Labs Research
- Canonical: https://www.quantitativesuperintelligencelabs.com/research/capital-one-stock-q3-2026-earnings-discover-synergies-credit/

## Short answer
Capital One stock Q3 2026 is a story of the Discover deal starting to pay off. In the three months to 30 September 2026, Capital One earned $3,539m, up 11%, and $5.61 per diluted share, up 16% from $4.83. Excluding acquisition amortization and integration costs, adjusted EPS was $6.69, up 12%. Revenue rose 6% to $16,344m, the domestic card charge-off rate fell to 3.98% from 4.63%, and the return on tangible common equity (ROTCE) was 21.1%. Management said the deal is delivering about $1.8bn of annualized synergies, ahead of schedule. Our excess-return model values Capital One at $215.00 a share, 2.0% above the $210.77 close on 2 November 2026: the share price assumes Capital One goes back to earning about its own long-run return on equity, a little above its cost of equity.

## Key takeaways
- EPS up 16%, profit up 11%. Q3 2026 net income was $3,539m against $3,192m a year earlier, and diluted EPS rose to $5.61 from $4.83, helped by a 5% fall in the diluted share count. Adjusted EPS was $6.69, against $5.95 (8-K Ex 99.1; 8-K Ex 99.2).
- Credit improved. The domestic card net charge-off rate fell to 3.98% from 4.63% a year earlier, and the total net charge-off rate to 2.73% from 3.16%. Capital One released $225m of its loan-loss allowance (8-K Ex 99.2; Q3 2026 earnings call).
- Discover synergies ahead of schedule. Chair and chief executive Richard Fairbank said results "reflect about $1.8 billion of annualized combined synergies", mainly from moving Capital One debit cards to the Discover Network and from expense savings (Q3 2026 earnings call).
- More marketing ahead. Marketing was $1,594m, up 14%, and management expects "to lean harder into marketing in 2027", including restarting Discover marketing (8-K Ex 99.2; Q3 2026 earnings call).
- Capital returned. Capital One bought back $2.6bn of shares in the quarter and held its CET1 ratio at 13.8%. Shares outstanding fell 5.4% in a year, to 601.5m (8-K Ex 99.2; Q3 2026 earnings call).
- Our value: $215.00 a share, 2.0% above the $210.77 close and up from $180.24 in our previous estimate. The average analyst price target we track is $255.19 (StockAnalysis, S&P Global data).
- What to watch. Fourth-quarter results, expected in late January 2027, where consensus adjusted EPS is $4.86, and the conversion of the existing Discover card accounts, due to finish in the first quarter of 2027 (Equibles; Q3 2026 earnings call).

## Full versions
- [HTML](https://www.quantitativesuperintelligencelabs.com/research/capital-one-stock-q3-2026-earnings-discover-synergies-credit/)
- [Markdown](https://www.quantitativesuperintelligencelabs.com/research/capital-one-stock-q3-2026-earnings-discover-synergies-credit/article.md)
- [PDF](https://www.quantitativesuperintelligencelabs.com/research/capital-one-stock-q3-2026-earnings-discover-synergies-credit/capital-one-stock-q3-2026-earnings-discover-synergies-credit.pdf)
- [This agent brief](https://www.quantitativesuperintelligencelabs.com/research/capital-one-stock-q3-2026-earnings-discover-synergies-credit/llms.txt)

Publisher: QSI Labs (Quantitative Super Intelligence Labs)
Site index: https://www.quantitativesuperintelligencelabs.com/llms.txt