Education finance company Nelnet (NYSE: NNI) reported Q4 CY2025 results exceeding the market’s revenue expectations, with sales up 5% year on year to $392 million. Its GAAP profit of $1.60 per share was 1.8% below analysts’ consensus estimates.
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Nelnet (NNI) Q4 CY2025 Highlights:
- Net Interest Income: $107.1 million vs analyst estimates of $84 million
- Revenue: $392 million vs analyst estimates of $382 million (5% year-on-year growth, 2.6% beat)
- Pre-tax Profit: $46.38 million (11.8% margin)
- EPS (GAAP): $1.60 vs analyst expectations of $1.63 (1.8% miss)
- Market Capitalization: $4.70 billion
"Nelnet's teams knocked the ball out of the park in 2025, delivering record earnings and strengthening our foundation for long-term success," said Jeff Noordhoek, chief executive officer of Nelnet.
Company Overview
Starting as a student loan servicer in the 1970s and evolving through the changing landscape of education finance, Nelnet (NYSE: NNI) provides student loan servicing, education technology, payment processing, and banking services while managing a portfolio of education loans.
Revenue Growth
A company’s long-term sales performance can indicate its overall quality. Any business can have short-term success, but a top-tier one grows for years. Thankfully, Nelnet’s 9.3% annualized revenue growth over the last five years was decent. Its growth was slightly above the average financials company and shows its offerings resonate with customers.
Long-term growth is the most important, but within financials, a half-decade historical view may miss recent interest rate changes and market returns. Nelnet’s annualized revenue growth of 21.3% over the last two years is above its five-year trend, suggesting its demand recently accelerated. 
Note: Quarters not shown were determined to be outliers, impacted by outsized investment gains/losses that are not indicative of the recurring fundamentals of the business.
This quarter, Nelnet reported modest year-on-year revenue growth of 5% but beat Wall Street’s estimates by 2.6%.
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Key Takeaways from Nelnet’s Q4 Results
We were impressed by how significantly Nelnet blew past analysts’ net interest income expectations this quarter. We were also happy its revenue outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. On the other hand, its EPS missed. Overall, this print had some key positives. The market seemed to be hoping for more, and the stock traded down 2.2% to $128.51 immediately after reporting.
Is Nelnet an attractive investment opportunity at the current price? The latest quarter does matter, but not nearly as much as longer-term fundamentals and valuation, when deciding if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).
