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what it is
NerdWallet helps you pick credit cards, loans, insurance, and banking products, then gets paid when you click or sign up.
how it gets paid
Last year Nerdwallet made $837M in revenue. credit cards was the main engine at $293M, or 35% of sales.
why it's growing
Revenue grew 21.7% last year. Q4 2025 revenue was $225.4 million, up 22.6% vs. prior year, based on the company earnings report referenced in the source set.
what just happened
The quarter showed NerdWallet can still grow while staying profitable, with revenue at $225.4M in Q4 2025.
At a glance
B balance sheet — gets the job done, barely
14.9x trailing p/e — the market's not buying it — or you found a deal
8.3% return on capital — nothing to write home about
$0.38 fy2024 eps est
$688M fy2024 rev est
xvary composite: 55/100 — below average
What they do
NerdWallet helps you pick credit cards, loans, insurance, and banking products, then gets paid when you click or sign up.
You ask one money question and end up staying for the next five. That habit matters because NerdWallet had 25 million registered users as of December 31, 2024, according to company data cited in the source set. Marketplace model → it matches you with financial products and gets paid by partners → so what: your attention turns into revenue without NerdWallet lending its own balance sheet.
How they make money
$837M
annual revenue · their business grew +21.7% last year
credit cards
$293M
+22%
personal loans
$176M
+24%
insurance
$126M
+18%
banking
$100M
+20%
mortgage, investing, SMB, and student loans
$142M
+19%
The products that matter
affiliate marketing for cards
Credit Card Marketplace
~$585M of revenue concentration
this is the center of gravity. At roughly $585M, it accounts for the majority of the revenue mix and turns editorial traffic into referral fees.
largest revenue source
lead generation for loans
Personal Loan Marketplace
~$251M across loans and other referrals
this bucket is smaller, but not small. Roughly $251M means changes in lender appetite still move the income statement.
second engine
financial tracking and retention
NerdWallet App
supports a $836.6M referral machine
the app is free, so the number that matters is indirect. It exists to keep users coming back to a business that generated $836.6M in 2025.
repeat visits matter
Key numbers
8.4%
money left
Operating margin → profit after running the business, before interest and taxes → so what: NerdWallet keeps about 8 cents from each revenue dollar.
$7M
long debt
Long-term debt → money owed over many years → so what: $7 million is just 1% of capital in the source set, which is tiny for a $837 million revenue business.
25M
registered users
Registered users → people with an account → so what: that is a large audience NerdWallet can keep sending into cards, loans, and banking offers.
14.9x
trailing p/e
P/E → stock price divided by profit per share → so what: you are not paying a premium multiple for a business that grew revenue 21.7% vs. prior year.
Financial health
B
strength
- balance sheet grade B — adequate — nothing special
- risk rank 2 — safer than 80% of stocks
- price stability 5 / 100
- long-term debt $7M (1% of capital)
B — functional but not a standout on the balance sheet.
Total return vs. market
Return history isn't available for NRDS right now.
source: institutional data · return history unavailable
What just happened
beat estimates
The quarter showed NerdWallet can still grow while staying profitable, with revenue at $225.4M in Q4 2025.
Q4 2025 revenue was $225.4 million, up 22.6% vs. prior year, based on the company earnings report referenced in the source set. Reported EPS was $0.34, while the source set also shows a $0.51 quarterly EPS figure for 12/31/24, so the filings and summary sources are not perfectly aligned.
$225.4M
revenue
$0.34
eps
22.6%
revenue growth
the number that mattered
$225.4 million matters most because this business lives or dies on user intent turning into partner revenue, and that number was still growing above 20%.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
the top risk is google-driven traffic dependence. NerdWallet does not control the top of the funnel the way a bank with direct customers does.
high
Google changes can hit revenue fast
Most acquisition still appears tied to organic search. If rankings slip, fewer users see the content, fewer users click through, and the referral model feels it almost immediately.
At roughly $836.6M of annual revenue and only a 5.8% net margin, even a modest traffic hit can do more damage to profit than to sales.
med
Thin margins leave little room for mistakes
A 5.8% net margin means the business keeps less than 6 cents of every revenue dollar. This is not the kind of cushion that absorbs weaker conversion or higher marketing expense without consequence.
A 1-point margin hit on $836.6M of revenue is about $8.4M of profit pressure. For a company of this size, that matters.
med
The growth rate is already decelerating
Full-year 2025 revenue grew 22%, but Q1 2026 guidance points to about 9% growth at the midpoint. The market can forgive slow growth or thin margins. Both together are harder.
If that slowdown spreads beyond one quarter, the case for paying even 14.9x earnings gets thinner, and the buyback starts doing more narrative work than operating work.
This is a referral business trading below annual sales. That sounds cheap until you remember the earnings stream depends on traffic quality, partner budgets, and a margin profile that does not bend much before profit does.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
trend
whether 9% growth is a pause or the new speed
Q1 2026 guidance of $224M–$232M implies a clear slowdown from the 22% full-year pace. If growth stays in single digits for more than a quarter, the market will stop treating 2025 as a launch point.
metric
the new revenue segmentation
Starting in Q1 2026, management plans to break out revenue by category. You want to know whether cards still carry the business or whether newer lanes are doing more of the work.
calendar
how much of the $225M buyback gets used
A $225M authorization against a $663M market cap is large. If management acts on it, share count matters. If it sits idle, the headline loses force.
risk
whether profits keep pace with revenue
Management pointed to as much as $110M in 2026 NGOI. That is the operating target to watch because revenue growth without better profit conversion is not enough here.
Analyst rankings
xvary composite
55 / 100
Below average overall. In human-speak: the stock is interesting because it is cheap, not because it is clean.
balance sheet
B
Fine, not elite. Low debt helps, but this is still an execution story more than a balance-sheet story.
risk rank
2
That reads safer than many small caps. It does not mean the stock price will feel safe.
price stability
5 / 100
Very low stability. In human-speak: expect the chart to behave like a small cap with a story, because that is what this is.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutional ownership data for NRDS is being compiled.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
n/a
n/a
$14
current price
n/a
target midpoint · n/a from current
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