The Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) share price has been caught up in the market selloff and is tumbling lower today.
In afternoon trade the payments company's shares are down 3.5% to $99.33.
Is this a buying opportunity?
While I think this pullback could be a buying opportunity when the dust settles on this latest market volatility, one leading broker believes investors should wait for an even better entry point.
According to a note out of Goldman Sachs, this morning the broker held firm with its neutral rating and lifted its price target to $94.40 following its first quarter update.
Goldman was pleased that Afterpay's operating momentum appears robust. However, it notes that its customer additions in the United States fell short of its expectations. The broker had forecast US customer numbers of 6.7 million, compared to the 6.5 million that it reported.
It commented: "APT operating momentum appears robust although customer additions in the US of 6.5mn were below GSe 6.7mn. We note, however, the December quarter in the US is seasonally a very strong one and customer addition run-rates were indicated to be accelerating into October."
Two things the broker was particularly pleased with were the growing frequency of use in the ANZ market and its net transaction profit margin. These were both ahead of its expectations.
What else did Goldman Sachs say?
Goldman Sachs expects Afterpay to continue to execute strongly, however it does have concerns over the impact of increasing competition.
The broker commented: "While APT continues to execute strongly and we anticipate it will have a strong December 2020 quarter, at this stage we remain Neutral rated reflecting the fact we expect competition to intensify particularly in the US market."
Goldman notes that plenty of institutional funds have been flooding into the industry.
"A number of APT's US competitors have recently completed equity raisings. Klarna announced a US$650mn equity funding round in September 2020 and Affirm raised US$500mn in September 2020 in a series G funding round ahead of its launch of a fortnightly instalment product with Shopify. We also note that Paypal has launched its 'pay in 4' product for the upcoming holiday season," it explained.
In light of this, the broker will be holding firm with its neutral rating for the time being.
