Nu Holdings (NU +0.92%) is a $77 billion company, but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of U.S. investors weren't familiar with it. It's a major player in the financial services industry in Latin America -- and it's worth having on your radar.
This fintech stock has been on fire -- up 55% year to date 2025 (as of Sept. 18), and up by 204% over the past three years. That's some serious momentum.
Should investors buy Nu shares right now? Here are three reasons why that might be a good idea.
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It's rapidly adding new customers
Investors might not look at banking as an industry with lots of high-growth opportunities. Online-only bank Nu proves that this is a flawed assumption. The business is posting remarkable gains, which clearly demonstrate just how popular these products and services are with customers.
In the most recent quarter, the company posted year-over-year revenue growth of 29%. Its top-line figure of $3.7 billion was an astonishing 208% more than in the same period three years ago. The consensus view among sell-side analysts is that its revenue will rise at a compound annual rate of 30.7% between 2024 and 2027.
That revenue growth has largely been powered by the growth of its customer base. Nu now has 123 million customers in total, with 107 million of those in its home country of Brazil. But it's already seeing remarkable adoption in its newer markets of Mexico and Colombia. It's likely to enter additional markets in the future.
Nu is also benefiting from good timing -- it's riding a wave of widening broadband and smartphone access across Latin America, which makes it easier for people to access digital financial services. And the region has huge unbanked and underbanked populations. That presents a large opportunity for Nu.
Look at the bottom line
When a company is growing its top line by leaps and bounds like Nu is, you might expect that its management isn't really focused yet on the bottom line. During the early expansion stages, bringing in new customers to reach scale and boosting revenues is key. Generating net income is an afterthought.
Again, Nu stands out. Its profits are skyrocketing. Net income increased 31% year over year in Q2. And its net profit margin has trended upward in recent years. This is the sign of a business that's scaling up in a lucrative manner. The consensus view among analysts following the bank is that earnings per share will increase at an annualized pace of 38% from 2024 to 2027, faster than its expected top-line growth.
Nu doesn't operate physical bank branches. Since it thus avoids a lot of costly overhead, it can direct more cash toward product development or marketing efforts while also growing its bottom line.
The company's unit economics are worth highlighting. Nu collected $12.20 in monthly average revenue per active customer (ARPAC) during the second quarter. That was significantly more than its $0.80 cost per customer to serve them. Given the bank's ability to cross-sell more of its products and services to its established customers, its ARPAC could keep rising.
NYSE: NU
Key Data Points
Still a worthy opportunity
After a stock has tripled in three years, like Nu has, it would be natural for an investor to wonder if they had missed their opportunity to buy it profitably. It can be difficult to envision the stock continuing its ascent at anything like its prior pace in the years ahead. Yet given Nu's impressive fundamental performance, investors should at least keep tabs on it. Strong financial gains could drive the shares higher.
Moreover, based on the current valuation, now actually looks like a good time to buy the stock. Shares trade at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 19.6. For comparison, the S&P 500 trades at a forward P/E of about 21.6. Nu's share price growth is likely to slow down from its fairly torrid recent pace, but the stock is still well positioned to beat the market over the next five years.
