Needham & Company LLC Reiterates “Buy” Rating for NU (NYSE:NU)

NU (NYSE:NU)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by Needham & Company LLC in a note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have a $19.00 price target on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price points to a potential upside of 26.47% from the stock’s previous close.

NU has been the subject of several other reports. Scotiabank lowered NU to a “sector perform” rating and set a $13.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on NU from $18.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Susquehanna raised their price target on NU from $13.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 14th. Wolfe Research dropped their price objective on shares of NU from $18.00 to $17.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. Finally, Bank of America reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of NU in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NU currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $17.91.

NU Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:NU opened at $15.02 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $14.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $13.99. NU has a 52 week low of $11.20 and a 52 week high of $18.98. The company has a quick ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $72.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.30, a PEG ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 0.94.

NU (NYSE:NU) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 30th. The company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter. NU had a return on equity of 31.59% and a net margin of 18.65%.The company had revenue of $5.88 billion during the quarter. On average, analysts expect that NU will post 0.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NU announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, June 4th that permits the company to repurchase $0.00 in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at NU

In related news, CEO Cristina Junqueira sold 65,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.71, for a total transaction of $956,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,542,083 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $37,394,040.93. This trade represents a 2.49% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Henrique Camossa Sald Fragelli sold 221,707 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.81, for a total value of $3,505,187.67. Following the transaction, the insider owned 979,446 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,485,041.26. The trade was a 18.46% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 361,707 shares of company stock valued at $5,626,338 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NU

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of NU by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 121,350,701 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,031,411,000 after purchasing an additional 3,419,077 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in NU by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 91,478,395 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,464,569,000 after buying an additional 239,660 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in NU by 8.6% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 45,966,932 shares of the company’s stock valued at $660,545,000 after buying an additional 3,656,945 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in NU in the 4th quarter valued at about $763,792,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in NU by 11.0% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 42,602,086 shares of the company’s stock valued at $713,160,000 after buying an additional 4,215,824 shares during the period. 84.02% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

NU Company Profile

Nu Holdings Ltd., operating under the Nubank brand, is a digital financial services company that provides banking, payments and credit products through mobile applications. Its offerings include digital bank accounts, credit cards, personal loans, payment services, investment products and insurance, serving consumers and small businesses.

Founded in Brazil in 2013 by David Vélez, Cristina Junqueira and Edward Wible, Nubank was established to simplify financial services and expand access to banking through technology.