Affirm shares soar 16% on revenue beat, surprise profit during holiday

Affirm shares jumped 16% Friday after the buy now, pay later company topped Wall Street’s fiscal second-quarter revenue forecast and posted a surprise profit during a strong holiday shopping period.

Earnings came in at 23 cents per share, ahead of the 15-cent per share loss expected by analysts polled by LSEG. The company also reported $866 million in revenue and showed 47% growth from a year ago. Analysts had forecast revenues of $807 million for the period.

“We outperformed on adjusted operating income, which is our bottom-line profitability metric that we guide to,” Chief Financial Officer Rob O’Hare told CNBC.

Gross merchandise volume, a commonly used metric in the space showing the total value of transactions, hit $10.1 billion and surpassed a StreetAccount estimate of $9.64 billion. It was the first time that figure passed $10 billion and reflected 35% year-over-year growth.

In a letter to shareholders, the company attributed a large chunk of the growth to gains in its general merchandise and consumer electronics business during the holiday shopping season.

Affirm said it is still planning to achieve GAAP profitability by the end of its fiscal fourth quarter. For the current period, the company anticipates revenue between $755 million and $785 million.