Wall Street financial giant Citibank recently issued a bullish report on Nu Holdings Ltd. (NU.US), upgrading the Brazilian digital banking leader's stock rating from "Sell" to the most optimistic "Buy" rating, while doubling the company's target stock price from $9 to $18. Although this Brazilian digital banking leader's stock has already surged over 15% after announcing strong quarterly results on August 14, based on Friday's highest closing price since July, Citi's latest target price implies approximately 30% potential upside for the company's stock over the next 12 months.
Despite global macroeconomic concerns, this fintech company focused on South American digital banking business has delivered strong performance for multiple consecutive quarters. Citi's analyst team stated that these above-expectation and robust quarterly results not only demonstrate the company's excellent ability to cope during difficult times, but also indicate its full capability to achieve accelerated development based on key business portfolios while maintaining good balance sheet quality.
Citi's analyst team believes that the company's profit growth data may accelerate in the Mexican and Colombian markets. The bank noted that Nu Holdings Ltd.'s overall operational efficiency upgrade will also help improve its ROE (Return on Equity). The latest financial report shows Nu Holdings Ltd.'s ROE is approximately 28%, standing out in the global fintech industry.
More detailed latest financial results show the company achieved revenue of approximately $3.7 billion in Q2 2025, higher than Wall Street analysts' average expectations, representing a 32.1% year-over-year increase. The company stated that since 2021, its overall revenue has expanded dramatically with an annualized growth rate as high as 85%.
However, Nu Holdings Ltd.'s valuation has significant advantages compared to many high-valuation fintech companies in the US stock market. Currently, the stock's forward P/E ratio is only around 25x, with valuation remaining relatively reasonable.
According to public information, Nu Holdings Ltd. is a financial holding company headquartered in Brazil, primarily providing Nubank digital banking services, covering personalized credit lines, mobile payment systems, interest-bearing savings accounts, investment-grade global financial product portfolios, and more.
Nu Holdings Ltd.'s core subsidiary - digital bank Nubank - is a Latin American digital banking platform centered on the Brazilian market. Relying on fully online applications and data-driven risk control, it can provide customized credit card products, demand and high-interest savings for individuals and small businesses, and also offers customers consumer and salary loans, insurance, investments, cross-border remittances and other one-stop digital financial services, while focusing on one-stop small-asset retail customers and micro digital financial services.
Digital bank Nubank's cumulative customer base has exceeded 118 million, spanning Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and other major South American markets. In 2024, it became the first digital bank outside Asia to break 100 million customers.
Nu Holdings Ltd.'s Nubank digital bank core products mainly include no-annual-fee credit cards, no-minimum-balance checking accounts, yield-generating "Money Boxes" savings, QR code and NFC payments, installment consumer loans, salary loans, provident fund (Brazilian FGTS) mortgage loans, investment funds, insurance, and more.
Nubank's digital banking ecosystem platform is based on powerful 100% native mobile App + cloud-native systems, real-time anti-fraud and AI-based strong risk control systems, as well as 100% online convenient account opening processes. This is why the digital bank's average customer acquisition cost is far below $10, much lower than traditional South American banks.