Pinterest, Affirm Surge on Earnings as CE 100 Index Gains 1.3%

Earnings reports held the key to the CE 100 Index’s momentum this past week — and among the takeaways: Buy now, pay later (BNPL) continues to see a groundswell of popularity with consumers.

Most of the pillars that we track were higher, save the Work segment, which gave up 0.7%. Though company-specific headlines were scarce, the jobs report that came in on Friday noted that hiring has been slowing, at least as measured by January’s 143,000 additions.

The Shop segment roared ahead by 4.8%.

Pinterest’s rally was the standout here, surging 20.9%.

As PYMNTS reported, the company’s latest earnings report capped what CEO Bill Ready said was a “transformative” year, wherein the company’s global monthly active users reached an all-time high of 553 million, an 11% increase year over year, and hit a major financial milestone in the fourth quarter, surpassing $1 billion in revenue for the first time. Quarterly revenue rose 18%, to $1.2 billion.

Pinterest is gaining popularity with Generation Z, the company’s largest and fastest-growing demographic, Ready said.

Elsewhere, earnings dominated the Pay and Be Paid segment’s 2.1% gain.

Affirm’s stock soared 23%.

The company reported earnings that detailed double-digit growth in its active consumer base. Gross merchandise volume (GMV) grew 35% to $10.1 billion, which accelerated from the first quarter; the company said it had made “gains in merchant share of cart” and 0% APR monthly installment GMV grew by 70%. Active consumers were 23% higher to 21 million. Transactions per active consumer also were on the rise, up 22% year over year to 5.3. The company is in sight of notching positive operating income, as CEO Max Levchin noted in the investor letter that accompanied the earnings release.

By product category, GMV was up 40% in general merchandise, and 36% in electronics. Levchin noted in the written materials, “Newer merchant categories such as professional and legal services, which we generally serve via partner platforms, grew over 60% and contributed to the strong performance in the ‘Other’ category,” which in turn was up 57%.

The Affirm Card also significant growth. There was $845 million in Affirm Card GMV, which in turn was up 113% year over year; the card’s active consumers were up 136% during the same period, to 1.7 million cardholders. The 30-plus-day delinquencies into December 2024 were 2.5%, the same rate that had been seen before the pandemic, at the end of 2019. The latest figure also marked an improvement from the 2.8% seen in the fiscal first quarter.

The Pay and Be Paid pillar gains were tempered a bit by PayPal’s decline, which stood at 12.9%.

PayPal’s fourth-quarter earnings indicated that several engines of growth have been slowing.

Total payment volumes (TPV) were up 7% year over year to $437.8 billion, which was lower than the 9% annual growth logged in the third quarter. Transaction revenue growth in the most recent quarter was 4%, down from the 11% rate at the start of the year. The overall number of transactions per active account grew by 3% to 60 transactions, slowing from 9% in the third quarter and 11% year-over-year growth in the first quarter.

But there were some bright spots too: As for branded checkout, growth was 6% in foreign exchange neutral TPV, up from 5% growth the fourth quarter of 2023. The branded-checkout related volumes represent 30% of the total TPV.

Venmo TPV accelerated in the most recent quarter, at 10% year over year, up from a steady 8% pace. In further evidence of the shift to BNPL, PayPal users spend about 30% more on average when using BNPL, and through 2024, the firm drove approximately $33 billion in TPV, up 21% versus 2023, according to management commentary on the call.

Teladoc’s stock gained 27.2%, as the Be Well group was 1.3% higher.

The company announced that it is acquiring Catapult Health. The $65 million deal is designed to support Teladoc’s efforts to improve early detection of health conditions. Catapult offers an at-home wellness exam known as VirtualCheckup, which gives members a kit that lets them collect blood samples, check their blood pressure and provide other screening info.

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