What Happened?
Shares of buy now, pay later company Affirm (NASDAQ:AFRM) fell 4.7% in the afternoon session after Loop Capital Markets analyst Reginald Smith initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $105 price target, even as consumer fintech shares traded lower. According to TipRanks, Loop Capital launched coverage on September 8 with that $105 Buy, favoring Affirm over SoFi, which the firm rated Hold. TipRanks shows a Strong Buy consensus and an average target of about $100.46, so the Loop mark is in line with the bullish camp. The constructive call was not enough to offset broader weakness in consumer fintech.
After the initial drop, the shares shed some of the losses and rose to $68.85, down 4.3% from the previous close.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks. Is now the time to buy Affirm? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
What Is The Market Telling Us
Affirm’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 45 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 12 days ago when the stock gained 5.3% on the news that the company reported second-quarter 2026 financial results, beating Wall Street's revenue and earnings expectations. According to a company press release, Affirm generated revenue of $1.17 billion, up 33% year over year, and delivered GAAP profit of $4.62 per share alongside pre-tax profit of $169.1 million. Both figures came in well ahead of Wall Street expectations, with revenue topping analyst estimates of $1.11 billion and EPS significantly surpassing consensus forecasts of $0.35. The company's pre-tax profit margin expanded to 14.5%, up 6.3 percentage points from the prior year. Looking ahead, Affirm projected third-quarter 2026 revenue of $1.21 billion at the midpoint, representing a 29.1% increase year over year. That guidance also came in above analyst estimates of $1.16 billion, bolstering investor confidence in the company's growth trajectory.
Affirm is down 7% since the beginning of the year, and at $68.85 per share, it is trading 25.3% below its 52-week high of $92.18 from September 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Affirm’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at only $747.85.
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