Susquehanna downgrades Affirm on slowing BNPL spending, valuation

As previously reported, Susquehanna analyst James Friedman downgraded Affirm (AFRM) to Neutral from Positive with a $57 price target The stock in morning trading is down 2% to $56.90. Online U.S. spending suggests the buy-now-pay-later share of spending didn’t increase much from a year ago, which may imply Affirm’s gross merchandise volume could come in below consensus, the analyst told investors in a research note. The firm says that while the BNPL share of US e-commerce grew slightly to 7.54% versus 7.47% last year, the sequential slowdown in volume growth led it to calibrate its expectations for Affirm’s quarter. Further, Susquehanna points out the stock has reached its price target