NEW YORK, June 19, 2026, 15:01 EDT
- NYSE trading is closed Friday for Juneteenth; Nu Holdings last closed at $12.71 on Thursday, off about 1.5%, but up roughly 4% for the holiday-shortened week.
- Recent downgrades from Citi, Susquehanna and BofA have kept focus on credit costs, leadership change and valuation.
- The week ahead turns on whether investors give more weight to Nu’s $1 billion buyback and growth record, or to rising loan-loss provisions and Brazil credit risk.
Nu Holdings Ltd.’s U.S.-listed shares enter the long weekend caught between a modest weekly rebound and renewed analyst caution, with Wall Street shut for the Juneteenth holiday. The stock last traded at $12.71 on Thursday, down about 1.5% on the day, even as the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.9% and the S&P 500 gained 1.1%.
That is the point. Nu is no longer trading only as a fast-growing Latin American fintech story. The market is now weighing whether its credit expansion, CFO transition and new capital-return plan can sit comfortably in the same stock.
The short week was not all bad. NU rose from $12.19 on June 12 to $12.71 on June 18, a gain of about 4.3%, after a bruising start to June when analyst downgrades and management change pushed the shares near a 52-week low. Trading volume was heavy on Thursday at about 66.8 million shares, close to the stock’s average volume.
The latest reset came from Citi, which cut Nu to Neutral from Buy and lowered its price target to $13 from $18 on June 15. Earlier this month, Susquehanna moved to Neutral with a $13 target, while BofA Securities cut the stock to Underperform — a negative rating that means the analyst expects the shares to lag — with a $10 target.
Nu’s answer has been capital discipline. On June 4, the board approved a share repurchase program, or buyback, of up to $1 billion over 12 months, saying growth investments in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and the United States, plus regulatory capital buffers, remained funded. The program can still be suspended or changed at any time.
The other overhang is the finance seat. A securities filing showed Rob Livingston, formerly Visa’s CFO for North America, will replace Guilherme Lago as Nu’s chief financial officer on July 13, with Lago moving to a special adviser role and supporting the transition through Aug. 31. Nu said the planned transition does not change its operating model, risk appetite or long-term strategy.
Founder and CEO David Velez said Livingston was “the right person to lead the team” and that Nu’s priorities were “unchanged.” Lago said it was “the right moment to step down,” while Livingston said his focus would include capital allocation and “supporting Nu’s next stage of growth.” Nu International
The fundamentals still give bulls material to work with. Nu said first-quarter revenue surpassed $5 billion for the first time, net interest income — the lending income left after funding costs — reached $3.25 billion, and net income rose 41% to $871 million. But credit loss allowances, money set aside for expected loan losses, rose 33% from the prior quarter to $1.79 billion, while risk-adjusted net interest margin, a lending-profit measure after expected losses, fell to 9.5%.
Competitive pressure is also different at this size. Nu says it now has 135 million customers across Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, including more than 115 million in Brazil and 15 million in Mexico. Reuters reported last year that Nu’s market value had been running neck-and-neck with Itaú Unibanco, the traditional Brazilian lender it has challenged for investor attention.
Management wants investors to see technology as the offset to credit risk. Rohan Ramanath, general manager of AI Core at Nu, said this month that “better models don’t just reduce losses” and can deliver “inclusion and profitability in one move.” That is the company’s cleanest argument: more data, sharper underwriting, deeper customer use. Nu International
But the risk case is plain. If Brazil delinquencies rise faster than Nu’s models expect, or if expansion in Mexico, Colombia and the U.S. costs more than planned, the buyback will not settle the argument. BofA has already flagged the timing of the CFO handover as an added uncertainty while Nu faces a tougher Brazil credit backdrop and pushes into newer markets.
When trading resumes, the $13 area will matter less as a neat price line than as a test of confidence. Citi and Susquehanna now sit near that level with their targets; BofA is lower at $10. For now, the tape says investors are not abandoning Nu. They are asking for proof that growth can keep outrunning the cost of risk.
