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Today at a glance:
🦎 Berkshire: Abel Doubles Buybacks
🏦 Nu: Credit Risk Pays Off
🌐 Cisco: AI Target Jumps to $9B
⚙️ Applied Materials: 2027 Tool Boom
☁️ Nebius: Customers Front the Bill
🧠 Cerebras: Beyond OpenAI
👟 On: DTC Falls Short
💊 Hims & Hers: 100K Subscribers Lost
📺 The Trade Desk: Turnaround Test
📆 Monday.com: AI Pivot Disrupts Growth
🌎 DLocal: Take Rate Stabilizes
1. 🦎 Berkshire: Abel Doubles Buybacks
Berkshire Hathaway Q3 revenue rose 11% Y/Y to $105.6 billion, while operating profit fell 5% to $13.7 billion, dragged down by weakness in insurance.
🛡️ Insurance: Underwriting profit plunged 47% to $1.7 billion, with GEICO down 45%. Investment income also declined 11% to $3.3 billion as interest rates fell.
🚂 BNSF & Energy: Pre-tax profit rose 19% to $2.3 billion for BNSF and 18% to $1.1 billion for BNE, benefiting from improved railroad efficiency and stronger utility operations.
🏭 Manufacturing & retailing: Pre-tax profit grew 13% to $5.3 billion. These businesses, including Pilot and McLane, represent 61% of Berkshire’s revenue.
The bigger story remains Greg Abel’s accelerating capital deployment. Berkshire repurchased $9.6 billion of its own shares in Q3, more than double Q2’s $4.5 billion, bringing buybacks to $14.4 billion YTD. Another roughly $2 billion followed in October.
However, Berkshire reversed its aggressive Q2 equity purchases, buying $2.4 billion in stocks while selling $2.8 billion, becoming a small net seller again. The cash pile reached $377.4 billion, although that includes $20.5 billion in unsettled Treasury purchases, leaving approximately $357 billion in effective liquidity.
Takeaway: Abel is accelerating buybacks while remaining selective on external investments. Berkshire’s noninsurance businesses are performing well, but underwriting profitability is deteriorating. With nearly $357 billion still available, the challenge remains deploying capital at attractive returns.
2. 🏦 Nu: Credit Risk Pays Off
Nu Q3 revenue rose 39% Y/Y to $5.8 billion ($0.1 billion beat), while GAAP EPS of $0.22 met expectations. Net income jumped 39% to a record $1.1 billion, with ROE at 32%. Nu added another 3.7 million customers, reaching 143 million, while monthly revenue per active customer (ARPAC) climbed to $17.7 from $17.1 in Q2.
The credit portfolio grew 33% Y/Y in constant currency to $41.6 billion, while cost of credit surged 73% Y/Y to $1.8 billion. Reported risk-adjusted Net Interest Margin (NIM) slipped from 12.4% in Q2 to 12.1% in Q3, but excluding one-off items, it improved from 11.9% to 12.7%. This reflects stronger underlying returns despite deliberate expansion into riskier lending segments. Early delinquencies remained stable at 4.9%, while 90+ day delinquencies increased to 7.3% from 6.9%.
Mexico added 870K customers in its first quarter operating as a full bank, reaching 16.6 million. The banking license increased deposit insurance coverage 16-fold and unlocked payroll accounts. Colombia reached 6.1 million customers (+62% Y/Y), becoming the country’s largest credit card issuer by number of cardholders.
Nu also launched Nu US, reaching customers across all 50 states, and Nu Global, a stablecoin-powered multicurrency account now serving customers in 37 countries. The efficiency ratio (operating expenses as a percentage of revenue) improved to 19.3%, allowing management to improve FY26 guidance to 19%–19.5%, from approximately 20%.
Takeaway: Nu continues to compound its customer base and profitability while expanding credit. Delinquencies are rising, but stronger underlying risk-adjusted returns suggest its underwriting engine remains effective. Mexico and Colombia offer substantial growth opportunities, while the US expansion introduces a new long-term opportunity.