While the market is focused on rising loan losses and delinquencies, the reality is that companies such as Capital One are still wildly profitable, are working hard to preserve shareholder value (as trhey should), and will continue to be, even if the near-term negatives continue for a while.

Because of this, in many instances there is unlikely to be a large decrease in shareholder value despite the stock prices having been crushed over the last 6 months or so.

As a value investor, this is what people should focus on; how much value is actually being destroyed versus how much the share price is dropping. The two are not always similar, because markets are very inefficient in the short term, only to be more accurate over the long term.

With that in mind, my read of the quoted table is that while the company is through tough times (equity, earnings down) it is taking care to protect its investors.

While admirable to that extent, the real question I would ask myself is what is the likelyhood for the business to continue its bad course and, respectively, for how long can they sustain fighting that trend.

And why, in fact, are they doing it?

To protect shareholders or to boost price, which, although serving the first is a different beast altogether?

Thanks for raising the interesting topic and taking the time to educate those of us with only basic level of understanding :-)