Capital One Financial Corp (COF) stock analysis
Capital One Financial Corp (COF) clears 8 of this site's 8 mechanical value filters, 4 of 8 Buffett-style checks and 3 of 5 Lynch-style checks. A free-cash-flow DCF does not fit financial services companies, so no margin of safety is shown. It returns +3.9% to shareholders net of dilution. Figures are as of October 23, 2026, from SEC filings and market data refreshed weekly; this is educational analysis, not investment advice.
Data as of October 23, 2026. Refreshed weekly from SEC filings and market data.
What does Capital One do?
Capital One is a US bank best known for credit cards, also offering auto loans and consumer and commercial banking, mostly online. It bought Discover Financial in 2025, adding the Discover card network.
Brands and businesses it owns
- Capital One
- Discover
- Venture
- Quicksilver
- Savor
What stands out about Capital One?
- No filter fails. COF passes 8 of the 8 value filters. See every filter.
- Strongest against peers: P/E ratio. At 11.5× (peer median 21.7×) it ranks 8th of 37 among financial services stocks this site tracks. See the ranking.
- Weakest against peers: return on equity. At 10% (peer median 18%) it ranks 34th of 40 among financial services stocks this site tracks. See the ranking.
- Held by investors this site follows. Dan Loeb (3.6% of its portfolio), Steve Cohen (0.8% of its portfolio) and Warren Buffett (0.2% of its portfolio), from their latest 13F filings. See Superinvestors.
How has Capital One's share price moved?
The interactive price chart needs JavaScript.
Is Capital One undervalued? The value diligence check
Every value-investing signal this site computes for this stock, gathered in one place: the same real numbers from the tools below, not a new score.
- Margin of safety (DCF) n/a (Financial Services)
- P/E vs. its own history 11.5x · near the cheap end Real range: 5.0x–53.5x over 5 years (net income per diluted share from each fiscal year's 10-K, paired with the real closing price at that fiscal year-end).
- Wall St. analyst rating Buy · 4.07/5 28 analysts this month: 7 strong buy, 16 buy, 5 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell (Finnhub). Down from 4.10 last month.
- Altman Z″-Score (bankruptcy risk) n/a (Financial Services)
- Earnings quality (is the profit real?) n/a (bank, insurer or REIT)
- Shareholder yield (cash back to owners) +3.9% net Latest fiscal year (2025): dividends 1.2% + buybacks 3.3% − stock comp 0.6%, as a share of today's market cap. Over 14 years its split-adjusted share count rose 18%. See Shareholder Yield Leaders.
- Capital needed to grow (See's test) n/a (bank, insurer, lender or REIT)
- PEG (growth at a reasonable price) 1.30 · Above fair P/E 11.5× ÷ 8.9% a year of growth behind it. 136th lowest of 447 stocks with a usable PEG. Lynch's fair value is a PEG of 1; a very high PEG usually means almost no growth, a very low one a profit spike. See PEG Ratio Ranking.
- Compounder lenses (4) 2 of 4 · misses capital-light (n/a), real profit (n/a) Capital-light growth: cannot be measured (bank, insurer, lender or REIT); Profit is real: cannot be measured (bank, insurer or REIT); Cash to owners: cleared; Fair price (PEG): cleared. See Compounders at a Fair Price, which also lets you move the PEG bar.
- Munger's Inversion Check 0 flags
- Standing vs. sector peers 2 of 4 measures above the median Compared with the 39 other financial services stocks this site tracks: 1 in the top third, 1 in the bottom third.
- Dividend payout sustainability 0/6 · clean
How does Capital One compare with its peers?
2 of 4 measures sit above the median of the 39 other financial services stocks tracked here, 1 in the top third and 1 in the bottom third.
- P/E ratiolower is cheaper · peer median 21.7× 11.5× ✓8th of 37
- Return on equityhigher is better · peer median 18% 10% ✕34th of 40
- Net marginhigher is better · peer median 20.2% 14.9% –25th of 40
- Dividend yieldamong dividend payers · peer median 1.56% 1.72% –16th of 33
Peers are the stocks this site tracks in the same sector group, not every listed competitor. The bar runs from the weakest peer (left) to the strongest (right); the tick is the middle. Measures that don't apply to a sector (cash-flow yield for banks, debt for financials) are left out.
What would Buffett & Lynch say?
Buffett's checklist is built around durable, profitable businesses bought at sensible prices, and COF doesn't clear enough of it yet. In its favor: COF carries a conservative amount of debt relative to equity, converts sales into profit at healthy margins, is trading below what a conservative discounted-cash-flow estimate says it's worth - his own "price is what you pay, value is what you get" test, not a fixed multiple ceiling, and trades at a reasonable multiple of owner earnings, his own term for the real cash a business could pay out. Where it comes up short: COF isn't clearing the return-on-equity bar he'd want to see right now, and its five-year average return on equity falls short too, so this isn't just a one-off dip, hasn't grown earnings per share fast enough over five years to impress him, and doesn't cover its interest expense as comfortably as he'd want.
- ROE (TTM) > 11% ✕
- ROE (5yr avg) > 11% ✕
- Debt/Equity < 0.5 ✓
- Pretax margin > 15% ✓
- EPS growth (5yr) > 7% ✕
- Interest coverage > 5x ✕
- Trading below intrinsic value (DCF) ✓
- Price vs. owner earnings < 25x ✓
- Bonus: returning capital via buybacks FY2025
Lynch looked for growth stories that weren't overpriced for that growth, and COF falls short of his bar. In its favor: COF isn't leaning on debt to fund that growth, isn't asking too much even by a fast grower's usual richer multiple, and is generating real cash to back up a fast grower's higher price tag. Where it comes up short: COF doesn't clear the tighter PEG bar a fast grower needs to justify its pace, and is growing earnings outside the 20-50% band he considered sustainable for a fast grower - either not fast enough to earn the label, or a pace he'd flag as unlikely to hold up.
- PEG < 1 (stricter for fast growers) ✕
- EPS growth 20%-50% ✕
- Debt/Equity < 0.5 ✓
- P/E < 40 ✓
- Price/FCF < 40 ✓
Quantitative approximations of each investor's documented approach, not endorsed by either investor or their estates - commentary, not this site's actual ranking criteria. Buffett never published a numeric checklist: only 2 of his 8 checks here trace to his own documented concepts ("owner earnings," from his 1986 shareholder letter, and "price is what you pay, value is what you get," his case against fixed P/E/P/B ceilings) - the other 6 (ROE, debt, margins, growth, interest coverage) use commonly-cited thresholds that are not numbers he himself published. The 8 hard filters below (plus the Munger check and Graham margin of safety) are this site's real, mechanical screen and are computed completely independently of the checklists above.
Berkshire Hathaway's own filing
From Berkshire Hathaway's SEC 13F-HR filing dated 2026-08-14, compared with its 2026-05-15 filing - its own disclosed position, separate from this site's Buffett-style checklist above. 13F filings cover only U.S.-listed equity holdings and can lag the real portfolio by up to 45 days.
Which of the 8 value filters does Capital One pass?
- Market Cap > $25B $125.2B
- Trailing P/E < 25 11.53
- PEG Ratio < 1.5 1.30
- Price/Book < 8 1.14
- Price/Sales < 7 1.12
- EPS Growth YoY > -5% +16.3%
- vs 50-day MA (±12%) -1.6%
- vs 200-day MA (±12%) +0.5%
What is Capital One's margin of safety?
A standard free-cash-flow DCF doesn't fit how financial services companies report cash flow.
Where is Capital One in its 52-week range?
What is the short interest in Capital One?
8,951,001 shares short as of 2026-09-30 (FINRA settlement date). Reported twice a month, so this only changes roughly every two weeks, not daily.
What could go wrong with Capital One? Munger's inversion check
"Invert, always invert." Instead of reasons to buy, these are reasons to hesitate, not a verdict, and not everything worth knowing about a business.
- Margin of safety, even in the bull case n/a (Financial Services)
- Short interest under 5% of float 1.5%
- Passes most of the 6 fundamental filters 6/6 passed
Doesn't cover circle of competence, management quality, or accounting concerns: those need judgment, not data.
How much have Capital One shareholders gained per year?
Earnings growth per share plus dividend.
An earnings-based proxy, not a stock-price total return - it doesn't capture multiple expansion/contraction or reinvested dividends. EPS from COF's own 10-K filings; dividend yield is the current trailing yield on today's price, from the same weekly fetch as the rest of this site.
What do Capital One's 10-year financials show?
From COF's own 10-K filings (SEC EDGAR): up to the last 10 fiscal years. Press any year's bars for the exact figures.
Frequently asked questions about Capital One
What kind of company is Capital One?
Capital One is a US bank best known for credit cards, also offering auto loans and consumer and commercial banking, mostly online. It bought Discover Financial in 2025, adding the Discover card network. Brands and businesses it owns include Capital One, Discover, Venture, Quicksilver and Savor. This site groups it with Financial Services stocks.
Why does Capital One have no margin of safety on this site?
This site's DCF values a company from its free cash flow, and that does not fit financial companies, whose operating cash flow swings with client money, loans and trading rather than with what is left over for owners. So COF gets no margin of safety; judge it on the other checks on this page, such as its filters, shareholder yield and ranking against its peers. The method is in the Intrinsic Value Calculator.
How many of this site's 8 value filters does Capital One pass?
COF passes 8 of 8. It passes Market Cap > $25B ($125.2B), Trailing P/E < 25 (11.53), PEG Ratio < 1.5 (1.30), Price/Book < 8 (1.14), Price/Sales < 7 (1.12), EPS Growth YoY > -5% (+16.3%), vs 50-day MA (±12%) (-1.6%) and vs 200-day MA (±12%) (+0.5%). The 8-filter list shows every stock that passes all of them.
Does Capital One pass the Buffett-style and Lynch-style checklists?
On this site's Buffett-style checklist COF clears 4 of 8 checks and leans no; it misses ROE (TTM) > 11%, ROE (5yr avg) > 11% and EPS growth (5yr) > 7% and 1 more. On the Lynch-style checklist it clears 3 of 5 and leans no, with Fast Grower as its Lynch category; it misses PEG < 1 (stricter for fast growers) and EPS growth 20%-50%. These are this site's own rules written in the style of each investor, not their personal views; the rules are in the Editorial Standards.
How much cash does Capital One return to shareholders?
COF's net shareholder yield is +3.9%: the cash it returns through dividends and buybacks, minus stock-based compensation, as a share of its market value. Latest fiscal year (2025): dividends 1.2% + buybacks 3.3% − stock comp 0.6%, as a share of today's market cap. Over 14 years its split-adjusted share count rose 18%. Its trailing dividend yield is 1.72%, paid out of 7% of its free cash flow; the dividend-sustainability check raises 0 of 6 flags. See Shareholder Yield Leaders and the Sustainable Dividend Screener.
Which well-known investors own Capital One?
Among the investors whose SEC 13F filings this site tracks, Dan Loeb (3.6% of the portfolio; added to the position), Steve Cohen (0.8% of the portfolio; added to the position) and Warren Buffett (0.2% of the portfolio; trimmed the position) held COF as of June 30, 2026. 13F filings cover only US-listed equities and arrive up to 45 days after the quarter ends, so they lag the real portfolios. See Superinvestors.
Where do these numbers come from?
- Financial statements: Capital One's 10-K annual report for the year ended Dec 31, 2025, filed Feb 19, 2026 (filing index). Every earlier year in the 10-year financials comes from the company's older 10-K filings, all listed on SEC EDGAR.
- Prices and market data: quotes, P/E and analyst ratings from Finnhub; daily price history and the 52-week range from Twelve Data, both refreshed weekly. Short interest comes from FINRA, reported twice a month.
- How to check a figure: click any number in the card above to see its exact source, and read the Editorial Standards for every rule behind the checks.
About this Capital One Financial Corp analysis
This page shows every value-investing check the site runs on Capital One Financial Corp (COF) in one place: the 8 mechanical filters, the Buffett and Lynch checklists, a margin of safety from a disclosed DCF, earnings quality, shareholder yield and how it ranks against its sector peers. The numbers come from SEC filings and public market data, refreshed weekly, and the same rules apply to every stock on the stock list. See Editorial Standards for the sources and the rules, or run your own filters in the stock screener.