Shares of Affirm Holdings Inc ( AFRM ) are trading higher Thursday morning ahead of the “buy now, pay later” leader’s fourth-quarter earnings report, scheduled for release after the market close.

What To Know: Wall Street anticipates the fintech firm to report earnings per share of approximately 30 cents on revenues around $838 million. This quarter’s results are on watch following a mixed market reaction to its third-quarter report in May.

Bolstering investor confidence this month have been several positive catalysts. On August 12, Affirm announced an expanded partnership with Google, integrating its flexible payment options into Google Pay’s autofill feature on the Chrome browser, widening its potential user base. This was followed by a series of price target revisions from analysts at Jefferies, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley.

The report comes against a backdrop of growing consumer adoption of buy now, pay later services. A recent LendingTree survey highlighted that a record number of Americans are utilizing installment loans for purchases, including everyday necessities like gas and groceries, as rising costs continue to squeeze household budgets.

Investors will be closely watching Affirm's new user growth and transaction volumes to gauge how effectively the company has capitalized on this inflationary trend to close out its fiscal year.

Price Action: According to data from Benzinga Pro, AFRM shares are trading higher by 2.3% to $79.38 Thursday morning. The stock has a 52-week high of $82.53 and a 52-week low of $30.90.

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How To Buy AFRM Stock

Besides going to a brokerage platform to purchase a share – or fractional share – of stock, you can also gain access to shares either by buying an exchange traded fund (ETF) that holds the stock itself, or by allocating yourself to a strategy in your 401(k) that would seek to acquire shares in a mutual fund or other instrument.

For example, in Affirm Holdings’ case, it is in the Financials sector. An ETF will likely hold shares in many liquid and large companies that help track that sector, allowing an investor to gain exposure to the trends within that segment.

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