The Payright Ltd (ASX: PYR) share price certainly had a rather strange day today. Payright shares opened at 97 cents this morning after closing at 96 cents a share yesterday.
But soon after open, investors lit a rocket under the Payright share price, pushing it up to a high of $1.06 (a 10.43% rise). However, the share price subsequently cooled off, but still ended the day at $1.02 a share. That's a rise of 5.73%.
Since we're in the middle of the ASX earnings season, you might assume that this sharp bump might be due to Payright reporting its financial results. But you'd be wrong.
The company last gave a market update on its business back on 15 January. And that was a quarterly business update. Indeed, there has been no major news out of this company since 3 February. That was when Payright detailed a loan facility that the company has entered into.
So what's going on?
Well, it's not exactly clear. Payright is an ASX buy now, pay later (BNPL) company. It provides higher-value BNPL services on the more expensive products that the 'mainstream' BNPL providers like Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) and Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) don't cover.
It's been growing at a healthy pace to be sure. Back in that quarterly update in January, Payright told investors that its gross merchandise value came in at $20.6 million, which was up 28% on the prior quarter. It also grew its customer base by 13% over the same period.
But the markets already knew that.
Could today's lift be put down to speculation? That wouldn't be a new scene that Payright investors. Just last week, the company got a 'speeding ticket' from the ASX after its shares raced 32% higher in one day, for no apparent reason at all. We saw a similar phenomenon occur in other ASX fintech and BNPL companies. That included Zip Co, as well as Novatti Group Ltd (ASX: NOV) and Douugh Ltd (ASX: DOU).
About the Payright share price
At today's close, the Payright share price gives the company a market capitalisation of $90.44 million. Although the shares have given investors a lot of substantial gains over the past week or so, the current share price is actually the same as the price that Payright IPOed at back in December.
