The Smartest Bank Stocks to Buy With $100 Right Now
Nu is adding millions of customers quarterly, but it's still a small fish in a large sea of financial companies in Latin America.
10 stocks we like better than SoFi Technologies ›
Bank stocks as a category are generally high-value, low-growth stocks. They typically pay dividends, often with attractive yields, and they're reliable for long-term growth as they drive the economy.
However, if you're looking for great bank stocks, I'm going to turn the tables here and present two quality candidates that are high-octane growth stocks with no dividends that are not for the risk-averse investor. If that fits your investing profile, and you have $100 to invest right now, SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ: SOFI) and Nu Holdings (NYSE: NU) are two stocks you should take a look at.
SoFi was one of the legions of special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) that stormed the markets a few years ago before petering out to a trickle these days. It's one of the few that actually took off, becoming a real industry disruptor with loads of potential.
The bank is all online, with a multitude of easy-to-use services geared toward the novice user. Since it was created to be completely digital, and it's still small and growing, it has agility and flexibility that give it a leg up, in certain ways, over legacy banks.
It's attracting customers at a rapid pace, with a record 800,000 new accounts in 2025's first quarter, a 34% increase from the same period last year. The target market is young professionals who are getting their feet wet in finance, with good jobs and a long runway in increasing engagement and adoption of financial services. The company calls its growth strategy the financial services productivity loop, and it involves cross-selling and upselling more services to monetize its user base more effectively over time. That means adding new customers and impressing them enough to keep them, as well as launching new services to have a broad assortment of products and solutions. To appeal to this specific market, it's using some aggressive marketing techniques like naming sports arenas that are meaningful to these users and sponsoring events they appreciate.
More than that, it's rolling out services with the intent to deliver real value to its customers rather than simply mimicking what's already available through other banks. For example, it has offered access to initial public offerings (IPOs) usually only available to institutional investors, and it recently announced that it will offer users instant global remittances through a blockchain. Last week, it announced access to private markets through several partnerships.
SoFi's core segment is lending, and as interest rates have started to come down, it has been boasting strong revenue gains and profit growth, as well as improving credit metrics. But it's focusing on expanding its platform, specifically in the financial services segment, which is low cost and fee based. It's probably only a matter of time until this segment becomes its largest, and scale is resulting in increasing net income. Chief Executive Officer Anthony Noto envisions SoFi becoming a top-10 bank with a huge, long-term opportunity.
Nu is similar to SoFi, but it operates in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. It's growing fast, adding millions of new customers quarterly, but it has a way to go.
The bank added more than 4.3 million new accounts in 2025's Q1 for a total of 118.6 million. The vast majority, 104.3 million, are in the company's home market of Brazil, where more than half of the adult population has a Nu account. Although it's still adding millions of new customers there, it's growing even faster in Mexico and Colombia where it's still a small presence. It only recently launched savings accounts in these countries, and it was recently approved for a bank charter in Mexico, making it the first all-digital bank to get one.
Customers are highly engaged, and the company is reporting strong growth metrics. Revenue increased 40% year over year in 2025's Q1, and net income was up 74% to $557.2 million. Although sales growth decelerated in the quarter, Nu has been demonstrating admirable performance considering the high inflation and overall volatile macroeconomy in Brazil.
Deposits increased 48% over last year in the quarter, and loan originations were up 64%, but net interest margin (NIM) was down from 19.5% last year to 17.5% this year. Management cites its heavy investments in expanding the business in Mexico and Colombia as pressuring the margin. However, even though those two regions aren't yet profitable, the Brazil business is profitable enough on its own to keep earnings positive and allow for newer growth areas.
Nu has a small share of the financial services system in its regions, specifically in Mexico, but it's growing quickly, and there's a tremendous opportunity to capture more. Now is an excellent time to get in as it keeps expanding.
Before you buy stock in SoFi Technologies, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and SoFi Technologies wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $680,559!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,005,670!*
Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,053% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
See the 10 stocks »
*Stock Advisor returns as of July 15, 2025
Jennifer Saibil has positions in Nu Holdings and SoFi Technologies. The Motley Fool recommends Nu Holdings. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The Smartest Bank Stocks to Buy With $100 Right Now was originally published by The Motley Fool
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Health insurance companies have a problem — people are using their plans more
When medical insurance provider Centene (CNC) opened its books to investors on Friday, the company reported a surprising loss and an uptick in usage. The latter is a broader problem for the industry. In the second quarter, Centene reported an adjusted loss of $79 million and a "health benefits ratio" of 93%. Its benefits ratio, or the amount of its revenue derived from premiums that it pays out for medical care, jumped from 87.6% in the same quarter last year. Moves in that figure can have outsized effects on health insurers' financial performance. "Because of the narrow margins of our health plan business, relatively small changes in our HBR can create significant changes in our financial results," Centene wrote in its Q2 earnings report. And the problem is not isolated to Centene. Elevance Health (ELV), which offers plans including Blue Cross and Blue Shield, reported a similar jump in its "benefit expense ratio" to 88.9% in the second quarter, up from 86.3% in the same quarter last year. Both Centene and Elevance attributed the jump especially to their government-subsidized offerings under the Medicaid and Medicare programs. Molina Healthcare (MOH), which reported Q2 earnings earlier this month, reported a similar outlook, attributing its lowered earnings guidance to the same trend facing other medical insurers. "The short-term earnings pressure we are experiencing results from what we believe to be a temporary dislocation between premium rates and medical cost trend which has recently accelerated,' Molina CEO Joseph Zubretsky said in a statement. Elevance stock dropped by roughly 12% after its report earlier this month, while Molina stock dropped by roughly 8%. Both stocks have remained depressed since. Health Care (XLV) is the worst-performing sector in the S&P 500 this year. Centene stock dropped by roughly 15% in premarket trading after its earnings release before recovering to a positive gain of roughly 6% by the closing bell on Friday. The buoy was led by CEO Sarah London's announcement that Centene was reinstating earnings guidance after pulling this forecast earlier in the month. The company also reported revenue of $48.7 billion, which topped estimates for $44.2 billion, and said it expects to be able to raise the payments it gets from states for Medicaid plans, which would improve its margins. UnitedHealth's MCR challenge The premium-to-cost ratio will be closely watched at UnitedHealth Group (UNH), which refers to this measure as its "medical care ratio" (MCR) and is slated to release Q2 earnings next week. After seeing its medical care ratio rise to 85.1% in the second quarter last year, UnitedHealth is expected to see its ratio jump to 89.3% this year, according to Bloomberg consensus estimates. An increase like that would mean tighter margins and less overhead for a company that already slashed its forecast earlier this year. That news sent its stock price down by 22%, its biggest drop in a single day since 1998. "Management noted care activity trends continue to run ahead of its previous expectations driven by a greater than expected impact at UHC from new members, further acceleration of [Medicare Advantage] utilization and indications of potential broadening trend among adjacent, complex populations," Truist Securities analysts wrote in a May analyst note about UnitedHealth. Closely watched by investors and analysts will also be how UnitedHealth leadership addresses its disclosure Thursday morning that the insurer is facing and complying with a criminal and civil investigation by the Department of Justice over potential fraudulent billing practices in the insurer's Medicare Advantage program. The stock dropped 4.7% through Thursday trading after the disclosure. The probe comes after reporting by the Wall Street Journal earlier this year that documented the potentially fraudulent activity by UnitedHealth, among other medical insurers, which included insurers' staff doctors and nurses adding diagnoses to patients' profiles on top of those documented by the patients' doctors. UnitedHealth may have to answer investor inquiries about the investigation on its earnings call on Tuesday, though these are far from the only challenges facing the insurance giant. According to former federal prosecutor Scott Hogan, the DOJ's Medicare probe will be looking to establish a prolonged pattern of wrongdoing by the insurer. "If everything comes back good for the company, if the department [closes its investigation], I think the company will be able to reassure the marketplace," Hogan, who specialized in fraud investigations, told Yahoo Finance on Friday. Even if UnitedHealth is eventually cleared of wrongdoing, he said, "If the investigation takes next steps, whether it's a lawsuit or prolonged investigation, I don't think there are many companies that desire those kinds of headlines." Jake Conley is a breaking news reporter covering US equities for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X at @byjakeconley or email him at Click here for in-depth analysis of the latest stock market news and events moving stock prices Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Tesla Shares Tumble. Is It Time to Buy the Dip or Run for the Hills?
Key Points For a second straight quarter, Tesla posted weak auto deliveries and revenue. The company once again hyped its robotaxi and robot ambitions. The stock is largely valued based on future bets paying off, making it risky to own. These 10 stocks could mint the next wave of millionaires › Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) has long been a stock that's traded more on the vision of its founder Elon Musk than on its actual fundamentals. However, with the stock sinking following Tesla's lackluster second-quarter earnings report -- despite more big promises around robotaxis and robots -- reality might finally be catching up to it. Musk has done a lot of brand damage to Tesla over the past six months or so. His funding of President Donald Trump's campaign and overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) angered many liberal-leaning consumers. He then later got in a very public feud with the President he helped get elected, alienating himself and Tesla from many conservatives, as well. The fallout could be seen in Tesla's Q2 numbers, while tariffs also stung the company. Meanwhile, it will soon see an even potentially bigger headwind due to the expiration of the U.S. electric vehicle (EV) credit by the end of third-quarter 2025. Its core auto business is struggling For the second straight quarter, Tesla saw big declines in its core auto business. After a 13% drop in deliveries in the first quarter, deliveries fell by the same amount in Q2. Model 3 and Model Y deliveries decreased by 12%, while other models plunged by 52%. Tesla's auto revenue plunged 16% to $16.7 billion in the quarter. Within its auto revenue, its regulatory credits, which are pure gross margin, fell by more than half to $429 million. Not surprisingly, this affected Tesla's profitability in the quarter. Even worse for the company is that many of these regulatory credits will soon be going away. Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" will eliminate the current federal $7,500 EV tax credit at the end of September. As a result, Musk admitted that the company could be in for a "few rough quarters" ahead. Overall, Tesla's revenue fell 12% to $22.5 billion. Its energy generation and storage revenue dropped 7% to $2.8 billion, while its service revenue climbed 17% to nearly $3.1 billion. Adjusted earnings per share sank 23% to $0.40, while its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) declined by 7% to $3.4 billion. Tesla's cash flow is also starting to take a hit. Its operating cash flow sank 30% to $2.5 billion, while its free cash flow cratered by 89% to $146 million. More big promises Given Tesla's poor operating results, it was not surprising that Musk and the rest of management directed the conversation toward Tesla's big bets on autonomous driving and robotics. Musk claimed that Tesla will expand its autonomous ride-hailing service to cover half of the U.S. population by the end of this year, pending regulatory approval. Now, of course, such a statement makes little sense. The company is currently only testing a small geofenced area in Austin, Texas, with safety drivers, and it has already had a number of safety issues in this small pilot. Its technology appears nowhere close to ready to be adopted in cities countrywide. But let's say, for argument's sake, that the technology and regulatory approvals work out. The company would then need hundreds of thousands of Level 4 autonomous driving vehicles on the road (not its current Level 2 vehicles). Beyond that, it would also need service and cleaning centers, as well as charging infrastructure in place to handle a fleet of that size. It would also need to have a consumer-facing platform that can handle things like pre-trip pricing, dynamic fare calculations, disputes, and refunds. There is no evidence that Tesla has any of this in place. Meanwhile, Musk continued to sing the praises of his Optimus robot, saying it will be Tesla's biggest product ever. He said Optimus 3 has an "exquisite" design with no significant flaws. He's looking to have a prototype of the new robot by the end of this year and then scale production next year. He then wants to be able to produce 1 million Optimus robots a year within five years. Once again, this seems ambitious. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is currently an AI robotics leader, and companies like Boston Dynamics have showcased robots with advanced mobility, so robots can be hugely useful. However, all Tesla has ever demonstrated is a humanoid robot that could only do carefully choreographed tasks. Today, most factory automation is done by specialized, fixed-purpose robots. The use case for a humanoid robot is still very questionable. Should investors buy the dip? Even after the stock pullback, Tesla's stock trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of over 170x based on 2025 analyst estimates, while its profitable auto peers -- like Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis -- generally have multiples of 10 or less. With its core auto business struggling, this indicates that the bulk of Tesla's market cap is predicated on ambitions that may or may not pan out. Given the company's track record of overpromising and under-delivering, this is not a bet I'd make. Should you buy stock in Tesla right now? The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $636,628!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,063,471!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,041% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 183% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 21, 2025 Geoffrey Seiler has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends General Motors and Stellantis. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Tesla Shares Tumble. Is It Time to Buy the Dip or Run for the Hills? was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
European leaders react to US-EU trade deal
(Reuters) -The U.S. struck a framework trade agreement with the European Union on Sunday, imposing a 15% import tariff on most EU goods and averting a bigger trade war between the two allies that account for almost a third of global trade. Following are reactions from European leaders to the deal. FRENCH PRIME MINISTER FRANCOIS BAYROU "It is a sombre day when an alliance of free peoples, brought together to affirm their common values and to defend their common interests, resigns itself to submission." HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER VIKTOR ORBAN "This is not an agreement ... Donald Trump ate von der Leyen for breakfast, this is what happened and we suspected this would happen as the U.S. president is a heavyweight when it comes to negotiations while Madame President is featherweight." GERMAN CHANCELLOR FRIEDRICH MERZ "This agreement has succeeded in averting a trade conflict that would have hit the export-orientated German economy hard. This applies in particular to the automotive industry, where the current tariffs of 27.5% will be almost halved to 15%." ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER GIORGIA MELONI "I consider it positive that there is an agreement, but if I don't see the details I am not able to judge it in the best way." FINNISH PRIME MINISTER PETTERI ORPO "The agreement brings much-needed predictability to the global economy and Finnish companies. Work must continue to dismantle trade barriers. Only free transatlantic trade benefits both sides the most." SWEDISH TRADE MINISTER BENJAMIN DOUSA "This agreement does not make anyone richer, but it may be the least bad alternative. What appears to be positive for Sweden, based on an initial assessment, is that the agreement creates some predictability." IRISH TRADE MINISTER SIMON HARRIS "A deal provides a measure of much needed certainty for Irish, European and American businesses who together represent the most integrated trading relationship in the world. While Ireland regrets that the baseline tariff of 15% is included in the agreement, it is important that we now have more certainty on the foundations for the EU-US trade relationship, which is essential for jobs, growth and investment." Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data