Owner Scorecard
An independent research publication · records as of July 18, 2026

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COF, Capital One Financial Corporation

Banks financial

A balance-sheet business, read on book value, net interest margin and credit losses rather than an earnings multiple.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K
COF · Capital One Financial Corporation
I

The business

What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.

Revenue · FY2025
$53.4B
+36.6% YoY · 13% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $62.0B 5-yr avg $38.8B
Return on equity 9% 5-yr avg 11%
Return on tangible equity 16% 5-yr avg 14%
Efficiency ratio 57% 5-yr avg 56%
Equity / assets 16.9% 5-yr avg 13.4%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

What moves the needle
Net interest margin, loan losses, and book value. A lender is read on the quality of its balance sheet, not an earnings multiple, and the worst year of credit losses matters more than the best. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on concentrated dependence, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?
Return on equity has sat below the cost of equity (median 8%, above 12% in only 2 of 10 years). It runs at a 57% efficiency ratio, lean. The cycle and the loan book decide this one; weigh the recession years in the record, not the average, and read the 10-K.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

II

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2016–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left
2016’162017’172018’182019’192020’202021’212022’222023’232024’242025’25TTMTTMJun 2026
Income statement
$25.5B$27.2B$28.1B$28.6B$28.5B$30.4B$34.3B$36.8B$39.1B$53.4B$62.0BRevenueRevenue
$22.9B$25.2B$27.2B$28.5B$26.0B$25.8B$31.2B$41.9B$46.0B$58.7B—Interest incomeInt. inc.
$2.0B$2.8B$4.3B$5.2B$3.1B$1.6B$4.1B$12.7B$14.8B$15.8B—Interest expenseInt. exp.
$20.9B$22.5B$22.9B$23.3B$22.9B$24.2B$27.1B$29.2B$31.2B$42.9B$49.4BNet interest incomeNet int.
$4.6B$4.8B$5.2B$5.3B$5.6B$6.3B$7.1B$7.5B$7.9B$10.6B$12.6BNoninterest incomeFee inc.
$6.5B$7.6B$5.9B$6.2B$10.3B($1.9B)$5.8B$10.4B$11.7B$20.7B$13.9BCredit-loss provisionProvision
$5.5B$5.5B$7.3B$6.9B$3.2B$15.8B$9.2B$6.0B$5.9B$2.3B—Pretax incomePretax
$3.8B$2.0B$6.0B$5.5B$2.7B$12.4B$7.4B$4.9B$4.8B$2.5B$10.5BNet incomeNet inc.
31%—18%20%15%22%20%19%20%8%21%Effective tax rateTax rate
Cash flow & returns
1.1%0.5%1.6%1.4%0.6%2.9%1.6%1.0%1.0%0.4%1.6%Return on assetsROA
8%4%12%10%5%20%14%8%8%2%9%Return on equityROE
6%2%10%8%4%18%12%7%6%1%8%Retained to equityRetained/eq
12%6%16%13%6%27%20%11%10%4%16%Return on tangible equityROTCE
53%52%53%54%53%54%56%55%55%57%57%Efficiency ratioEffic.
$812M$780M$773M$753M$460M$1.1B$950M$931M$932M$1.5B$1.5BDividends paidDiv. paid
$3.7B$240M$2.3B$1.5B$393M$7.6B$4.9B$718M$734M$4.1B—BuybacksBuybacks
($25.6B)($15.5B)($15.6B)($23.0B)($14.8B)($31.5B)($29.7B)($21.9B)($26.4B)($444M)—Investing cash flowInv. cash
$17.2B$3.2B$1.8B$6.6B$25.2B$474M$25.1B$13.8B$8.2B($8.9B)—Financing cash flowFin. cash
$3.5B$1.9B($863M)$260M$27.0B($18.7B)$9.2B$12.5B($84M)$18.4B—Change in cashΔ cash
Balance sheet
——$245.9B$265.8B$251.6B$277.3B$312.3B$320.5B$327.8B$453.6B—Loans held for investmentLoans
$357.0B$365.7B$372.5B$390.4B$421.6B$432.4B$455.2B$478.5B$490.1B$669.0B$673.8BTotal assetsAssets
$236.8B$243.7B$249.8B$262.7B$305.4B$311.0B$333.0B$348.4B$362.7B$475.8B$484.3BDepositsDeposits
$14.5B$14.5B$14.5B$14.7B$14.7B$14.8B$14.8B$15.1B$15.1B$28.5B$31.9BGoodwillGoodwill
$309.5B$317.0B$320.9B$332.4B$361.4B$371.4B$402.7B$420.4B$429.4B$555.4B—Total liabilitiesTotal liab.
$47.5B$48.7B$51.7B$58.0B$60.2B$61.0B$52.6B$58.1B$60.8B$113.6B$113.8BShareholders’ equityEquity
Per share
510M489M483M470M459M444M393M383M384M541M621MShares out (diluted)Shares
$7.36$4.06$12.45$11.80$5.91$27.89$18.72$12.75$12.38$4.53$16.94EPS (diluted)EPS
$1.59$1.60$1.60$1.60$1.00$2.58$2.42$2.43$2.43$2.80$2.44Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$93.20$99.73$106.95$123.45$131.19$137.39$133.73$151.51$158.46$209.89$183.21Book value / shareBVPS
$63.42$69.13$76.32$91.90$99.07$103.86$95.74$111.41$118.59$126.60$106.02Tangible book / shareTBVPS

The diluted share count moved ×1.41 into 2025 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
9-yr5-yr
Revenue / share+7.8%/yr+9.7%/yr
Owner earnings / share+9.3%/yr+6.7%/yr
EPS−5.2%/yr−5.2%/yr
Dividends / share+6.5%/yr+22.8%/yr
Capital spending / share+7.4%/yr+13.5%/yr
Book value / share+9.4%/yr+9.9%/yr

The year, in the company's words

the filing →

Verbatim from the 10-K's management discussion. Each sentence is shown only because its subject, direction, and stated figures check out against the filed numbers on this page. The words are the company's; the arithmetic is the record's.

  • Net interest income+37.4%
    “Net interest income increased by $11.7 billion to $42.9 billion in 2025 compared to 2024 primarily driven by higher loan balances, including the impacts of the Transaction, and lower rates paid on deposits.”
    ✓ figure matches the filed record
  • Provision for credit losses+76.3%
    “Our provision for credit losses increased by $8.9 billion to $20.7 billion in 2025 as compared to 2024 primarily driven by the initial allowance for credit losses of $8.8 billion for non-PCD loans acquired in the Transaction.”
    ✓ figure matches the filed record
III

Quality & stewardship

Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2025 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Is it a good business?

  • Return on equity 2%
    Below the cost of equity
    Net income $2.5B ÷ equity $113.6B
    Industry peers: median 10%
    What this means

    The bank's north star, what it earns on shareholders' capital. Cost of equity is roughly 10%, so a return durably above that builds value and below it destroys it. One year is noisy; the durability across a full credit cycle is what counts.

  • Return on tangible equity 4%
    Modest
    Net income ÷ (equity − goodwill $28.5B − intangibles $16.6B)
    Industry peers: median 11%
    What this means

    The cleaner return, stripping out the goodwill paid for past acquisitions. This is the number a buyer of the whole bank actually earns on the hard capital.

  • Efficiency ratio 57%
    Low cost ratio (<58%)
    Noninterest expense $30.5B ÷ (net interest income + fees)
    Industry peers: median 64%
    What this means

    The share of revenue eaten by running costs; lower is better, and below about 60% marks a genuinely efficient operation. A low ratio held for years is the operational side of a moat.

Is it sound?

  • Capital (equity / assets) 17.0%
    Well capitalized
    Equity $113.6B ÷ assets $669.0B
    What this means

    A plain-English leverage read: how much of the balance sheet is the owners' own money. This is a rough proxy; the regulatory figure is the CET1 ratio, which is risk-weighted and reported in the filing. The point is the same, how much loss the bank can absorb before depositors are at risk.

  • Deposit funding 71%
    Deposit-funded
    Deposits $475.8B ÷ assets $669.0B
    What this means

    Low-cost, sticky deposits are a bank's real moat, the cheap raw material it lends out at a spread. A bank funded mostly by deposits earns more durably than one that rents its money in the wholesale market.

  • Credit cost (provision / NII) 48%
    Elevated
    Provision for credit losses $20.7B ÷ net interest income $42.9B
    What this means

    What the bank set aside this year against loans going bad, as a share of its lending income. This swings hard with the cycle, low in good years and spiking in recessions, so read it across the record, not in one year. Disciplined underwriting shows up as low, stable provisions through a downturn.

The franchise and the credit cycle

  • Deposit franchise 6%
    Rate-sensitive funding
    Noninterest-bearing deposits $27.4B ÷ deposits $475.8B · pays 3.29% on the interest-bearing rest (avg of year-ends)
    What this means

    The share of deposits the bank pays nothing for — checking accounts that stay through rate cycles. This is the deposit moat in one number: a high share means cheap, sticky raw material for lending; a low share means the funding reprices with every rate move. Buffett's Wells letter is built on exactly this economics.

  • Net charge-offs —
    Not enough data
    What this means

    Not derivable from the filings' structured data — some filers carry recoveries only on segment axes, and a gross figure dressed as net would be a wrong number.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Debt maturity

the debt note, SEC EDGAR →

Not how much it owes, but when it falls due, and against what. The ladder the company files, beside cash on hand and a year's owner earnings.

'26$5.5B
'27$1.5B
'28$2.7B
'29$847M
'30$1.3B
later$1.1B

Bars scaled to the largest single year; “later” is everything due after 2030, shown apart since it dwarfs the years.

Due in the next 12 months$5.5Bthe first rung: what must be repaid or rolled over within the year
Within two years$7.0Bthe near wall, the part most exposed to today’s credit conditions
Biggest single year$5.5Bin 2026the lumpiest maturity, where a refinancing, if needed, is largest
Total scheduled principal$12.9Bevery year plus what lies beyond, as the footnote totals it

Against what the business has and earns

Cash & short-term investments, Jun 30, 2026$55.9B
One year of owner earnings (FY2025)$26.1B
Together, against $5.5B due next year15.0×

Cash on hand as of Jun 30, 2026 plus a year’s owner earnings comes to $82.0B against the $5.5B due in the twelve months after the Dec 31, 2025 schedule: 15 times it.

Maturity schedule extracted from the company’s Dec 31, 2025 annual report and reconciled to the total the table states.

Management, ownership & pay

read the proxy →

From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.

Fiscal yearChief executivePay, as filed“Actually paid”Owner earnings
2021Mr. Fairbank$20.5M$44.7M$11.6B
2022Mr. Fairbank$27.6M$759k$12.9B
2023Mr. Fairbank$28.6M$56.0M$19.6B
2024Mr. Fairbank$30.8M$56.4M$17.0B
2025Mr. Fairbank$65.0M$94.1M$26.1B

Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.

  • Insider ownership0.8%

    The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.

  • Stock-based compensation$776M

    The slice of the business handed to employees in shares in fiscal 2025, 1.5% of revenue, equal to 4.2% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.

What an owner would ask, FY2025

read the 10-K →
  • Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
    Management names Credit & receivables, Acquisitions, Insurance reserves as critical estimates

    each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →

The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.

Peers, Banks

The same industry, side by side on the bank lens. Each column names the period it is read over; the group median at the foot is the line to read each figure against.

CompanyRevenuelatest FY, USDROEmedian over the recordROTCEmedian over the recordEfficiencymedian over the recordNII / assetsmedian over the recordNoninterest-bearing sharelatest FY
BACBank of America Corp.$113.1B10%13%64%1.8%26%
CCitigroup Inc.$85.2B7%8%62%2.3%15%
WFCWells Fargo & Co.$83.7B11%13%67%2.5%26%
COFCapital One Financial Corporation$53.4B8%12%54%6.0%6%
MUFGMitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc.$43.8B6%7%71%0.7%—
BBVABanco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A.$39.7B10%11%38%2.3%—
USBU.S. Bancorp$28.7B12%17%59%2.5%16%
MFGMizuho Financial Group, Inc.$28.4B5%5%75%0.5%—
Group median—9%11%63%2.3%16%
IV

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

price / tangible book

A bank is worth a multiple of its tangible book value, and the multiple it deserves is set by the return it earns on that book. Type today’s price; we show what you would be paying against what Capital One Financial Corporation’s record justifies.

$
The assumptions

Tangible book / share, delivered5%/yr’20→’25

The justified multiple is (return on tangible equity − growth) ÷ (cost of equity − growth). A bank earning exactly its cost of equity is worth about one times tangible book; the premium above that prices each point of durable excess return. A higher cost of equity lowers the justified multiple for a bank.

Enter a price above to run it.

Price / tangible book—
Justified by the return—
Normalized return on tangible equity12%
Price / book—
Earnings yield—
P/E (3-yr avg ’23–’25)—
Graham’s price gate—

Graham applied the same standards to financial enterprises (Intelligent Investor ch.14): the 15× multiple cap on averaged earnings, and P/E times price-to-book at most 22.5. The gate marks the bargain-hunter’s floor, not a verdict.

Tangible book $65.8B on 613M shares, a 12% normalized return on it. The dials set the multiple such a return would justify; your price sets the multiple you are paying. It assumes the bank keeps earning that return; a credit cycle, a rate shock or a bad acquisition changes it, which is what the record and the 10-K are for.

Weigh COF against another business →

The owners of COF: the meeting and the votes →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Capital One Financial Corporation (COF), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/COF, data as of 2026-07-18.

Manual order: ← CODI its page in the Manual COFS →

Industry order: ← CNOBP the Banks chapter COFS →