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.
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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)