By Maria Armental
Discover Financial Services posted higher profits and revenue for the December quarter, but the results missed Wall Street projections, sending shares down about 4% in after-hours trading.
PROFIT: Fourth-quarter profit rose to $1.07 billion from $799 million a year earlier. On a per share basis, earnings were $3.64. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected $3.72 per share.
REVENUES: Revenue for the quarter, net of interest expense, reached $2.94 billion, compared with $2.82 billion a year earlier. Analysts expected about $3 billion.
YEAR: Discover ended the year with a profit of $5.45 billion on revenue of $12.09 billion, net of interest expense, compared to profit of $1.14 billion and revenue of 11 .09 billion a year earlier.
AWARDS: Rewards costs reached $697 million for the quarter and $2.51 billion for the year, compared to $569 million and $1.95 billion, respectively, a year earlier.
CREDIT LOSSES: Provision for credit losses in the fourth quarter was $263 million, down $268 million from the same period a year ago, due to lower net write-offs and a release of reserves during the quarter.
RESERVES: The fourth quarter included a release of reserves of $39 million.
Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com