Affirms 8 4% Plunge Amid $690M Trading Volume Surge Insider Selling and Mixed Institutional Stakes as Stock Ranks 129th in Liquidity

On August 8, 2025, Affirm (AFRM) saw a surge in trading activity, with a volume of $0.69 billion, marking a 67% increase from the previous day and ranking 129th in market liquidity. However, shares closed down 8.40%, reflecting investor caution amid mixed signals from key stakeholders.

Insider trading activity dominated recent news. Katherine Adkins, a top executive at Affirm, sold 64,890 shares in three separate transactions between July 7 and August 6, reducing her holdings by 34.32%. The sales, totaling $9.55 million, included 59,267 shares at $75.02 apiece on August 4 alone. Such concentrated selling by a major insider often raises concerns about potential governance risks or short-term profit-taking, though no official rationale was disclosed.

Institutional investors have maintained a mixed stance. Capital Research Global Investors and Vanguard Group increased their holdings in Affirm during the first half of 2025, adding 2.0% and 6.7% of shares respectively. Despite this, the stock remains highly volatile, with a beta of 3.63, indicating pronounced sensitivity to market swings. Analysts have also shown divergent views, with UBS lowering its price target to $56 while Deutsche Bank upgraded it to "buy" with a $78 target.

A strategy of purchasing the top 500 stocks by daily trading volume and holding them for one day returned 166.71% since 2022, significantly outperforming the 29.18% benchmark. This underscores the importance of liquidity concentration in short-term momentum-driven markets, particularly during periods of heightened volatility.