HOOD's November DARTs Rise: Is Its Expansion Strategy Working?

Core Insights - Robinhood Markets, Inc. (HOOD) experienced a year-over-year increase in equity and options Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs) in November 2025, with equity DARTs at 2.7 million (up 8%) and options DARTs at 1.3 million (up 30%), while crypto DARTs declined 40% to 0.6 million [1] Group 1: Financial Performance - In November 2025, total platform assets reached $324.5 billion, a 67% increase year over year [6] - Net deposits (excluding TradePMR) were $7.1 billion, up 27% [6] - Funded customers totaled 26.9 million, an 8% increase from November 2024 [6] - Equity notional trading volumes were $201.5 billion, up 37% year over year, while options contracts traded increased 24% to 193.2 million [7] - Margin balances surged 147% year over year to $16.8 billion [8] - Total cash sweep balance was $32.5 billion, up 23% from November 2024 [8] - Total securities lending revenues grew 48% year over year to $34 million [8] Group 2: Product Innovation and Market Strategy - Robinhood is focusing on becoming a leader in the active trader market by diversifying its offerings and expanding into lucrative businesses [2] - The company has launched new products such as Cortex, an AI assistant for market analysis, and Legend, which includes advanced trading tools [3] - Robinhood Social introduces features like verified trading profiles and strategy sharing, allowing users to open multiple accounts for different strategies [4] - The company is also offering tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs across 31 EU/EEA countries with 24/5 commission-free trading [4] - Rapid product innovation is expected to continue expanding Robinhood's client base, with transaction-based revenues showing a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.7% [5] Group 3: Competitive Landscape - Key competitors like Interactive Brokers (IBKR) and Tradeweb Markets Inc. (TW) are also enhancing their product offerings to challenge Robinhood's market share [9] - Interactive Brokers has introduced features such as the Karta Visa card and zero-commission U.S. stock trading in Singapore [10][11] - Tradeweb is focusing on the electronification of bond markets and investing in blockchain technology [12] Group 4: Valuation and Earnings Estimates - Robinhood shares have surged 83% over the past six months, compared to the industry's 21.6% growth [13] - The company is trading at a significant premium with a 12-month trailing price-to-tangible book of 15.55X compared to the industry average of 3.07X [14] - The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Robinhood's earnings implies year-over-year growth of 78.9% for 2025 and 16.2% for 2026, with upward revisions in estimates [16]