Synchrony Financial (SYF) stock analysis
Synchrony Financial (SYF) clears 5 of this site's 8 mechanical value filters, 6 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. 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 Synchrony do?
Synchrony is a consumer-finance company that issues store and co-branded credit cards and offers financing at retailers, healthcare providers and others. Customers mostly know it through partner cards rather than its own name.
Brands and businesses it owns
- CareCredit
What stands out about Synchrony?
- Misses 1 of the 8 value filters. It fails Market Cap > $25B ($24.1B); the other 5 pass and 2 were not evaluated. See every filter.
- Strongest against peers: P/E ratio. At 7.2× (peer median 21.7×) it ranks 3rd of 37 among financial services stocks this site tracks. See the ranking.
- Weakest against peers: net margin. At 14.1% (peer median 20.2%) it ranks 28th of 40 among financial services stocks this site tracks. See the ranking.
- Short interest is elevated. 5.6% of the float is sold short, 5.7 days to cover, above this site's 5% flag. See the figures.
How has Synchrony's share price moved?
The interactive price chart needs JavaScript.
Is Synchrony 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 7.2x · the middle Real range: 5.3x–8.8x 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 · 3.89/5 27 analysts this month: 6 strong buy, 12 buy, 9 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell (Finnhub). Up from 3.86 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) 14.0% gross Latest fiscal year (2025): dividends 1.8% + buybacks 12.2%. Stock comp is not reported in its filings, so no net figure. Over 13 years its split-adjusted share count fell 47%. See Shareholder Yield Leaders.
- Capital needed to grow (See's test) n/a (bank, insurer, lender or REIT)
- PEG (growth at a reasonable price) 1.03 · About fair P/E 7.2× ÷ 7.0% a year of growth behind it. 96th 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) 1 of 4 · misses capital-light (n/a), real profit (n/a), cash back (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: cannot be measured (stock comp not reported); Fair price (PEG): cleared. See Compounders at a Fair Price, which also lets you move the PEG bar.
- Munger's Inversion Check 1 flag
- Standing vs. sector peers 3 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 Synchrony compare with its peers?
3 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× 7.2× ✓3rd of 37
- Return on equityhigher is better · peer median 18% 20% –19th of 40
- Net marginhigher is better · peer median 20.2% 14.1% ✕28th of 40
- Dividend yieldamong dividend payers · peer median 1.56% 2.09% –13th 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 SYF doesn't clear enough of it yet. In its favor: SYF is currently earning a strong return on shareholders' equity, and has kept that profitability up over five years, not just this year, converts sales into profit at healthy margins, has grown earnings per share at a solid clip over five years, 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: SYF carries more debt relative to equity than he typically tolerates, 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 SYF falls short of his bar. In its favor: SYF is growing at the modest, GDP-ish pace typical of a slow grower, is cheap enough for a business with limited growth ahead of it, and converts earnings into real cash at a reasonable price. Where it comes up short: SYF doesn't pay much of a dividend, which is the main reason to own a slow grower in the first place, and carries more debt than he liked to see, even allowing for the extra room a large, stable business gets.
- Dividend yield > 2.5% ✕
- EPS growth 0%-10% ✓
- Debt/Equity < 0.6 ✕
- P/E < 20 ✓
- Price/FCF < 25 ✓
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
Which of the 8 value filters does Synchrony pass?
- Market Cap > $25B $24.1B
- Trailing P/E < 25 7.23
- PEG Ratio < 1.5 1.03
- Price/Book < 8 1.46
- Price/Sales < 7 0.73
- EPS Growth YoY > -5% -5.0%
- vs 50-day MA (±12%) Not evaluated †
- vs 200-day MA (±12%) Not evaluated †
What is Synchrony's margin of safety?
A standard free-cash-flow DCF doesn't fit how financial services companies report cash flow.
Where is Synchrony in its 52-week range?
What is the short interest in Synchrony?
17,451,121 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 Synchrony? 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 5.6%
- Passes most of the 6 fundamental filters 5/6 passed
Doesn't cover circle of competence, management quality, or accounting concerns: those need judgment, not data.
How much have Synchrony 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 SYF'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 Synchrony's 10-year financials show?
From SYF'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 Synchrony
What kind of company is Synchrony?
Synchrony is a consumer-finance company that issues store and co-branded credit cards and offers financing at retailers, healthcare providers and others. Customers mostly know it through partner cards rather than its own name. Brands and businesses it owns include CareCredit. This site groups it with Financial Services stocks.
Why does Synchrony 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 SYF 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 Synchrony pass?
SYF passes 5 of 8. It passes Trailing P/E < 25 (7.23), PEG Ratio < 1.5 (1.03), Price/Book < 8 (1.46), Price/Sales < 7 (0.73) and EPS Growth YoY > -5% (-5.0%). It misses Market Cap > $25B ($24.1B). vs 50-day MA (±12%) and vs 200-day MA (±12%) were not evaluated, because the moving-average checks only run on stocks that clear the fundamentals first. The 8-filter list shows every stock that passes all of them.
Does Synchrony pass the Buffett-style and Lynch-style checklists?
On this site's Buffett-style checklist SYF clears 6 of 8 checks and leans no; it misses Debt/Equity < 0.5 and Interest coverage > 5x. On the Lynch-style checklist it clears 3 of 5 and leans no, with Slow Grower / Cyclical as its Lynch category; it misses Dividend yield > 2.5% and Debt/Equity < 0.6. 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 Synchrony return to shareholders?
SYF's gross shareholder yield is 14.0%: the cash it returns through dividends and buybacks as a share of its market value. Latest fiscal year (2025): dividends 1.8% + buybacks 12.2%. Stock comp is not reported in its filings, so no net figure. Over 13 years its split-adjusted share count fell 47%. Its trailing dividend yield is 2.09%, paid out of 5% of its free cash flow; the dividend-sustainability check raises 0 of 6 flags. See Shareholder Yield Leaders and the Sustainable Dividend Screener.
How heavily is Synchrony stock sold short?
As of September 30, 2026, 5.6% of SYF's float was sold short (17,451,121 shares, 5.7 days to cover), down 7.3% from the prior reporting period. FINRA publishes short interest twice a month, so it changes about every two weeks; this site flags anything above 5% of the float.
Where do these numbers come from?
- Financial statements: Synchrony's 10-K annual report for the year ended Dec 31, 2025, filed Feb 6, 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 Synchrony Financial analysis
This page shows every value-investing check the site runs on Synchrony Financial (SYF) 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.