It certainly has been a volatile day for the Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) share price.
At one stage today the buy now pay later provider’s shares were down as much as 9% to $105.11.
The Afterpay share price then recovered to be down just 2.5% to $112.33 before falling back to be down 4.5% to $110.00 at the time of writing.
This means its shares are now down 31% from their record high of $160.05.
Why is the Afterpay share price under pressure?
Investors have been selling Afterpay shares in recent weeks amid concerns over rising bonds yields.
Rising bond yields are bad news for richly valued growth stocks as they form part of analysts’ valuation models. Essentially, as the riskfree rate rises, the premium that investors are willing to pay to put their money into risk assets decreases.
And given the extreme multiples that Afterpay and Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) shares trade on, it’s not a big surprise to see their shares come under pressure.
Is this a buying opportunity?
A number of brokers believe the recent weakness in the Afterpay share price is a buying opportunity.
One of those is Ord Minnett. Last week its analysts retained their buy rating and lifted their price target on the company’s shares to $150.00.
Based on the current Afterpay share price, this represents potential upside of 36% for its shares over the next 12 months.
Elsewhere, analysts at Morgan Stanley have an overweight rating and $159.00 price target, Wilsons has a buy rating and $160.20 price target, and Bell Potter has a buy rating and $168.50 price target.
In respect to the latter, Bell Potter is particularly positive on the company’s expanding product range. This follows its collaboration with Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC), which will see the launch of Afterpay Money in the near future. It suspects that this could be the first of several new products, potentially even home loans.
If Bell Potter is on the money with its recommendation, then the Afterpay share price could be hitting a new record high later this year. Shareholders certainly will be hoping this proves to be the case.
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More reading
- Why Afterpay, Nearmap, Temple & Webster, & Z Energy are tumbling lower
- Could Australia be the next tech hub? Afterpay (ASX:APT) CEO thinks it should be
- Is it ok to buy ASX 200 shares at a 52-week high?
- ASX 200 down 0.9%: Flight Centre & Webjet jump, Afterpay sinks
- Is Afterpay (ASX:APT)’s BNPL competition heating up?
James Mickleboro owns shares of Westpac Banking. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of ZIPCOLTD FPO. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of AFTERPAY T FPO. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.
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