What happened
Wild fluctuations in the share price of fintech company Affirm Holdings (NASDAQ:AFRM) continue. After skyrocketing in value following its IPO in January, Affirm has been trending downwards, and a widespread tech growth-stock sell-off in the spring didn't help. Shares were down 16.4% during the month of July, valuing the buy-now, pay-later company at a market cap of just over $17 billion at the end of the month.
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So what
Affirm had started to make up some ground in June after it announced a partnership with e-commerce software giant Shopify (NYSE:SHOP). Specifically, Affirm will be powering the Shop Pay Installments service, giving potentially many tens of thousands of merchants the ability to offer flexible payment terms to consumers and capitalizing on the fast-growing, buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) movement.
But Affirm isn't alone in this nascent industry. PayPal Holdings (NASDAQ:PYPL) has a similar product, and fellow BNPL upstarts Klarna and Afterpay are also making waves. Though it's growing fast, Affirm still operates at a loss, so it's no surprise shares took another leg down in July in volatile trading action.
However, the stock came roaring back on the first trading day of August after Square (NYSE:SQ) announced on Aug. 1 it's acquiring Affirm's peer Afterpay (OTC:AFTP.F) for $29 billion. Affirm nearly made up all the ground it lost in July following Square's announcement.
Now what
Speculation is swirling that Affirm could become an acquisition target as well. Digital payment and financial service technologists are quickly adding new capabilities to their suite of services to attract new users, and Affirm's torrid pace of growth (83% year-over-year increase in gross merchandise volume to $2.3 billion, in the first quarter of 2021) would be a valuable asset to the right firm.
For now, though, Affirm is still independent and finding lots of new partnerships to unlock its full potential. Whether it becomes a takeover target, this is a top name in fintech to keep an eye on. Affirm will announce results on Sept. 9, in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021.
