Robinhood Markets, Inc. (HOOD) shares slipped lower Thursday morning after the company released its November performance numbers, which painted a picture of slowing activity even as customer deposits continued their strong run.
Bank of America Securities analyst Craig Siegenthaler maintained a Buy rating on December 10 but trimmed his price target from $166 to $154, perhaps acknowledging the choppy near-term picture.
The Account Situation
Robinhood ended November with 26.9 million funded accounts, down about 130,000 from October but still ahead of last year's figure. Before you panic about customer flight, here's the context: the company had to close roughly 280,000 dormant, low-balance accounts because of escheatment rules, which basically require financial firms to hand over abandoned property to state governments.
Strip out that regulatory housekeeping, and Robinhood would have actually added around 150,000 customers during the month. Not a bad growth story hiding beneath the headline number.
Assets Down, Deposits Up
Client assets landed near $325 billion at November's close, sliding about 5% from October though comfortably above last year's levels. The decline likely reflects market movement rather than mass exodus, especially given what happened on the deposit side.
Net deposits hit $7.1 billion in November, which translates to roughly 25% annualized growth when you measure it against October's asset base. Zoom out to the full year, and customers poured in $70.2 billion in net deposits over the trailing twelve months, representing an annual growth rate around 36%. That's the kind of number that keeps brokerage executives sleeping soundly.
Trading Activity Cools Off
The November trading figures tell a different story. Equity notional volume came in around $201.5 billion, tumbling 37% from October but still running higher than last November. Options activity reached 193.2 million contracts, down 28% month over month while maintaining double-digit gains year over year.
Crypto trading produced $28.6 billion in notional volume, sliding 12% from October and dipping below the prior year. The breakdown shows $12 billion coming through Robinhood's core app and $16.6 billion from Bitstamp, which the company acquired earlier this year.
Event contracts provided a bright spot, with three billion contracts changing hands in November, running about 20% ahead of October's volume.
Margin Borrowing Climbs Higher
Customer margin borrowing reached $16.8 billion, up 2% from October and more than doubling year-ago levels. That's meaningful revenue for Robinhood, since the company earns interest on those loans.
Cash sweep balances finished November at $32.5 billion, roughly 5% below October but still ahead of last year. Management noted that about $700 million migrated from the Non-Gold Sweep program into standard free credit balances as that product wound down. Securities lending revenue came in at $34 million during November, dropping 43% from October while jumping 48% from the prior year.
Indonesia on the Horizon
Robinhood announced plans to enter Indonesia by acquiring PT Buana Capital Sekuritas and PT Pedagang Aset Kripto, grabbing both traditional brokerage and crypto trading capabilities in one move. Both deals need approval from Indonesia's Financial Services Authority (Otoritas Jasa Keuangan), with closing targeted for sometime in 2026.
The strategy appears to be keeping local brokerage services running while layering on access to U.S. equities, crypto trading, and tokenized products. It's the latest chapter in Robinhood's expansion story, following its recent addition to the S&P 500, launch of prediction markets, and acquisition of MIAXdx to beef up event-contract offerings.
Executives have been talking up tokenized securities and are already using those tokens as collateral for certain crypto-backed lending products, pushing into territory that blends traditional finance with crypto infrastructure.
Price Action: Robinhood shares were down 1.72% at $133.33 during premarket trading on Wednesday.