Stock Pick of the Week: Sell/Short Capital One Financial (COF)
The Risk/Reward of investing in Capital One’s stock looks Very Dangerous to me. There is lots of downside risk given the Misleading Earnings and there is little upside reward given the already-rich expectations embedded in the stock price.
RED FLAGS:
1. Misleading Earnings: COF reported a $399mm increase in GAAP earnings while our model shows economic earnings declined by $1,783mm.
2. The company’s ROIC is in the Bottom Quintile of all the companies we cover.
3. Stock price of $40.69 implies COF must grow its NOPAT at 15% compounded annually for 15 years.
David Trainer, Founder & CEO







