Nubank Gains Post-Market After Doubling Profit in Quarter

(Bloomberg) -- Shares of Nu Holdings Ltd., one of the world’s largest digital banks, rallied post-market after a second-quarter earnings report that beat analyst expectations including record revenue and profit figures.

Nu recorded $2.8 billion in revenue in the quarter through June 30 compared with a median estimate of $2.66 billion in a Bloomberg survey. Net income more than doubled from a year earlier to $487 million, surpassing analyst expectations of $418 million.

The bank, which gets the bulk of its business from Brazil, crossed the mark of 100 million customers during the quarter, while posting a return-on-equity of 28% and growing deposits in its newer markets of Mexico and Colombia. Nu is on its way to becoming “the largest consumer technology platform in Latin America,” founder and chief executive officer David Velez said in a statement.

Shares jumped as much as 8% after the close in New York.

While delinquency rates for loans from 15 to 90 days decreased to 4.5% in the quarter, loans of more than 90 days jumped to 7% from 6.3% as part of a concerted effort to grow the credit business, Chief Financial Officer Guilherme Lago said in an interview before the release.

“The increase in delinquency was intentional and very well within expectations,” Lago said. “I don’t think it should come as a surprise.”

Lending as a portion of the credit portfolio has jumped to about 25% from 15% over the last few years and carries a higher delinquency rate than credit cards, he said. The bank is profiting from the business, as seen by the risk-adjusted margin metric that rose to 22% from 13% in late 2022, the CFO added.

Nu’s exact customer count jumped to 104.5 million by June 30 with 95.5 million of those in Brazil. Mexico now has 7.8 million customers and $3.3 billion of deposits while Colombia has 1.3 million customers with $220 million in checking accounts.

The biggest headwind in the quarter came from weaker currencies in those markets. The Brazilian real, Mexican peso and Colombian peso led declines in Latin America, weakening more than 7% each.

Nu, which has a market capitalization of $60 billion, has gained more than 50% year-to-date and became Latin America’s most valuable publicly-traded bank.

The stock has 13 buy recommendations, eight holds and two sells, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Its price target of $13.36 per share was just above its close on Tuesday of $12.71.

(Recasts with market move.)