Nu Holdings stock jumps 11% as quarterly profit hits record $1.09B

American retail investors holding shares of Latin America’s largest digital banking platform saw their portfolios surge on November 13, 2026, as the company’s New York-listed stock jumped 11.7% to close at $13.21. The rally followed a blockbuster earnings report that proved the financial institution can sustain massive profitability even as it begins expanding its low-cost digital model beyond its home turf.

São Paulo, Brazil-based Nu Holdings, the parent company of Nubank, reported a record-breaking quarterly net income of $1.09 billion for the third quarter of 2026 on November 12, 2026. This milestone represents a 31% increase year-over-year on a foreign-exchange-neutral basis. The digital bank's gross revenue rose 37% year-over-year to $6.26 billion, while its return on equity (ROE) reached an industry-leading 32% for the period ending September 30, 2026.

Scaling Beyond Brazil

The bank's rapid growth has been propelled by its highly efficient, branchless business model. Originally founded to disrupt Brazil's highly concentrated traditional banking sector, Nubank now serves 65% of the adult population in its home country. According to the company's November 12, 2026, earnings release, its global customer base expanded by 3.7 million in the quarter to reach 143 million users across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia.

To sustain this momentum, co-founder and CEO David Vélez is looking north. In September 2026, the company launched "Nu US" and "Nu Global", introducing a high-yield account and stablecoin-backed cross-border payment tools to customers across all 50 U.S. states.

Credit Expansion and Rising Delinquencies

Despite the record profits, the bank is navigating the classic trade-offs of aggressive credit expansion. Nu’s total credit portfolio grew 33% year-over-year to $41.6 billion, driven by personal loans and credit cards. However, this expansion caused its 90-day non-performing loan (NPL) ratio—a key metric tracking bad debt—to tick up to 7.3% from 6.9% in the previous quarter.

Management downplayed the rise, attributing it to seasonal factors and a deliberate strategic push into interest-earning credit balances. Investors shrugged off the delinquency concerns, focusing instead on the bank's improved efficiency ratio of 19.3% and management's decision to lower its full-year cost-to-income forecast to between 19% and 19.5%.

In your brokerage app

For investors looking to gain exposure to Latin American financial technology, Nu Holdings Ltd. is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker NU. The stock is also a prominent holding in several emerging-market and fintech-focused exchange-traded funds, such as the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF).