By Chibuike Oguh
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Affirm Holdings’s stock rose by nearly 18% on Thursday after ecommerce giant Amazon announced that its business-to-business store would begin offering the buy-now-pay-later lender at checkout.
Amazon Business will roll out Affirm starting Thursday to eligible sole-proprietor sellers, and the new payment option will be available at checkout to all eligible customers by Black Friday on Nov. 24, the ecommerce giant said in a statement.
Affirm becomes the first buy-now-pay-later lender to be added to Amazon Business, the statement added. Its service is already available to Amazon’s retail customers.
“By selecting Affirm at checkout on Amazon Business and entering a few simple pieces of information, such as registered business name and business address, small business owners will receive an instant credit decision,” the statement said.
Affirm’s shares jumped to $20.72, up 17.7%, on the news. The stock, which has more than doubled this year, is on track for the biggest daily percent gain since August.
The median price target of the 18 analysts covering Affirm’s stock is $16.50 and their current recommendation is “hold”, according to LSEG data.
In August, Affirm reported better-than-expected quarterly results based on an uptick in loan transaction activity, sending its shares up 29% in a single session. The company is scheduled to announce its next quarterly earnings on Nov. 8.
(Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York; editing by Lance Tupper and Jonathan Oatis)
