Discover Plunges Most in Seven Years After Results Disappoint

(Bloomberg) -- Roger Hochschild isn’t having a great first month at the helm of Discover Financial Services.

The credit-card issuer dropped as much as 8.4 percent Friday, its steepest fall since August 2011. That followed third-quarter profit that missed some analyst estimates and a warning on an earnings call of higher losses on personal loans.

Hochschild took over as chief executive officer this month after more than a decade as president, replacing David Nelms, who oversaw Discover’s spinoff from Morgan Stanley just before the financial crisis. Friday’s drop drove the stock’s October decline to 12 percent.

Discover executives said on the call Thursday that the firm would cut back on personal lending and the unit’s loss rates will climb, even as the consumer businesses of larger lenders are defying gravity.

To contact the reporter on this story: Max Abelson in New York at mabelson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, Dan Reichl

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