Affirm Posts Wider Quarterly Loss Early After Twitter Posting

(Bloomberg) — Affirm Holdings Inc. released fiscal second-quarter earnings ahead of schedule, showing a 77% gain in revenue and a net loss that widened from a year earlier, after an early posting of some results on Twitter Inc.

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The firm’s tweet about “another great quarter” and mentioning the revenue surge was posted around 1:15 p.m. New York time on Thursday, and then deleted. Screen shots of the tweet were circulating on Twitter. Affirm later said on Twitter that some results were leaked earlier “due to human error.”

Affirm shares climbed almost as high as 12% earlier Thursday after the tweet before plunging. The San Francisco-based firm had previously said it would release results after the market closes, ahead of its earnings call. The company offers “buy now, pay later” loans to consumers through its online platform.

The information released earlier on Twitter “points to results well in excess of Street expectations,” Barclays Plc analyst Ramsey El-Assal said in a note to clients before Affirm posted its full results. While details in the full results would be important, “this early release points to very strong continued momentum in the business.”

Shares of Affirm dropped as much as 33% in trading Thursday and were at one point halted for volatility. The stock had fallen 26% this year through Wednesday’s close. The net loss of $159.7 million widened from $26.6 million a year earlier, missing the $100.3 million average estimate of 6 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

“Affirm’s strong growth accelerated this quarter, reflecting the key advantages of our superior technology, and commitment to putting people first,” Max Levchin, founder and chief executive officer, said in the statement. “We more than doubled gross merchandise volume year over year. Over the last 12 months, we have added nearly seven million active consumers to our network, while enabling 168,000 merchant partners to better serve their customers.”