Second-quarter net income rose 7 percent to $644 million, or $1.35 a share, from $602 million, or $1.20, a year earlier, the Riverwoods, Illinois-based lender said Tuesday in a statement. The average estimate of 24 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for profit of $1.30 a share.

Chief Executive Officer David Nelms, 53, is seeking to expand beyond credit cards by increasing the company’s student lending, direct checking and mortgage businesses. U.S. retail sales increased 0.2 percent in June, the Commerce Department said last week, as more Americans returned to work.

“Slow and steady wins the race,” Jason Arnold, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said in a phone interview before results were announced. “Discover is just chipping away at their business and getting growth.”

Discover card sales volume rose 6.4 percent to $29.3 billion from a year earlier, while net revenue climbed by the same percentage to $2.17 billion, the company said.

Discover shares gained 1.2 percent to close at $64.06 in New York Tuesday. The shares increased 15 percent this year, compared with the 0.6 percent decline of Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc.’s 6.3 percent slide. American Express Co., the biggest credit-card issuer by purchases, advanced 2.9 percent this year.