Affirm (NASDAQ:AFRM) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Affirm (NASDAQ:AFRM) to a strong-buy rating in a report issued on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on AFRM. Stephens boosted their price objective on Affirm from $55.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Affirm from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Citizens Jmp cut their target price on shares of Affirm from $105.00 to $85.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on shares of Affirm from $61.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Affirm from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.60.

Affirm Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ AFRM opened at $81.55 on Monday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $68.59 and its 200-day moving average price is $62.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a quick ratio of 11.32 and a current ratio of 11.32. Affirm has a 52-week low of $42.10 and a 52-week high of $100.00. The company has a market capitalization of $27.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 74.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.64 and a beta of 3.70.

Affirm (NASDAQ:AFRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $943.95 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $995.27 million. Affirm had a net margin of 9.63% and a return on equity of 11.17%. Affirm’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.01 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Affirm will post 1.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Noel Bertram Watson sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total transaction of $130,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 36,076 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,344,940. This represents a 5.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Michael Linford sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.04, for a total value of $8,004,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 117,984 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,443,439.36. This represents a 45.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 104,000 shares of company stock worth $8,244,000 over the last ninety days. 11.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AFRM. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Affirm during the fourth quarter worth about $281,961,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Affirm by 294.2% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,333,691 shares of the company’s stock worth $316,706,000 after purchasing an additional 3,234,260 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its holdings in Affirm by 11,042.3% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 2,161,278 shares of the company’s stock worth $157,004,000 after purchasing an additional 2,141,881 shares in the last quarter. Atreides Management LP raised its stake in shares of Affirm by 543.3% in the second quarter. Atreides Management LP now owns 1,977,882 shares of the company’s stock worth $136,751,000 after purchasing an additional 1,670,429 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Affirm by 26.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,641,965 shares of the company’s stock worth $412,315,000 after purchasing an additional 1,187,665 shares during the last quarter. 69.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Affirm Company Profile

Affirm Holdings, Inc is a financial technology company that provides point-of-sale consumer lending and payments solutions for online and in-store purchases. Its core product is a buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) platform that enables consumers to split purchases into fixed, transparent installment loans with no hidden fees. Affirm offers a range of financing options through merchant integrations, a consumer-facing mobile app and virtual card capabilities, and tools for merchants to offer alternative payment methods at checkout.