** Capital One Financial COF.N said on Thursday it will acquire fintech firm Brex in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $5.15 billion

** Co also reported a rise in quarterly profit on higher interest income from its credit card debt

** Posted Q4 adj. EPS of $3.86 vs estimates of $4.11 - data compiled by LSEG

** Shares of U.S. lender fall nearly 3% to $227.80 premarket

CART LOADED AND READY TO ROLL

** Jefferies ("buy"; PT: $300) says heading into Q4, firm's fundamentals remained strong, credit performance was stable and followed normal seasonal patterns, and the Brex acquisition will help advance its strategy in business payments

** Evercore ISI ("outperform"; PT: $290) says Capital One stressed that the Brex acquisition won't disrupt the Discover integration or affect its capital return plans

** Adds that as a result, the deal leaves the company's post‑Discover earnings power unchanged; Capital One acquired financial services firm Discover in 2025 in a deal worth over $30 billion

** KBW ("outperform"; PT: $290) says the Discover deal, combined with Brex, makes COF's story more compelling than before, and adds that it is encouraging that firm still working to make the economics accretive despite having significant investment opportunities

** BTIG ("buy"; PT: $270) says Brex deal makes long‑term sense for COF, especially alongside the Discover acquisition, and gives the firm a fast‑growing fintech and new commercial banking opportunities that neither company could build on its own

(Reporting by Akriti Shah in Bengaluru)

((akriti.shah@thomsonreuters.com))