AFRM vs. BRK.A: Affirm vs. Berkshire Hathaway Stock Comparison

Company Profile

Affirm (AFRM) and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) both belong to the Financial Services industry, though AFRM is classified under Transaction & Payment Processing Services while BRK.A falls under Multi-Sector Holdings.

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) has more than two decades of public-market history since March 17, 1980, whereas Affirm (AFRM) listed on January 13, 2021 and has a much shorter record to draw on.

Price Performance

Cumulative Growth

Trailing Returns

Calendar-Year Returns

Performance Metrics

Risk Profile

Drawdown History

Return Distribution

Risk Metrics

Affirm (AFRM) has a highly aggressive beta of 3.70, indicating much higher sensitivity to broad-market moves, while Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) is defensive at 0.56 and tends to be less market-sensitive — a wide gap in beta profiles.

Affirm (AFRM) trades around 4.46M shares per day on average, while Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) sees only 206 — a volume gap that can matter for position sizing, exit liquidity, and order execution.

Risk-Adjusted Performance

Risk-Return Positioning

Risk-Adjusted Metrics

Profitability

Affirm (AFRM) at 44.49% sits in the top ROE quartile, while Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) at 12.12% is closer to the peer norm — stronger capital efficiency for AFRM.

Affirm (AFRM) at 43.86% retains a top-quartile share of revenue as profit, ahead of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) at 22.30%, which keeps about the industry-typical share.

Both Affirm (AFRM) at 14.82% and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) at 32.56% run core operations about as efficiently as their industries’ norm — neither stands out on operating profitability.

Profitability Metrics

Growth

Affirm (AFRM) at 32.15% sits in the top revenue growth quartile, while Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) at -3.23% is in the bottom quartile, showing a clear gap in revenue momentum.

Affirm (AFRM) at 3,586.67% delivers above-range EPS growth, while Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) at -24.78% falls into the bottom quartile — a wide split in earnings momentum.

Growth Metrics

Financial Strength

current ratio doesn’t apply on either side: Affirm (AFRM) in Financial Services and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) in Financial Services both report balance sheets without a current/non-current split, so their short-term liquidity is better judged through regulatory and funding measures.

debt-to-equity ratio is set aside for both: Affirm (AFRM) in Financial Services and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) in Financial Services run businesses where balance-sheet leverage is part of the model, so capital-adequacy and funding measures are the better gauges of balance-sheet risk.

Financial Strength Metrics

Dividends

Neither Affirm (AFRM) nor Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) pays a dividend this period — they may reinvest, use buybacks, or simply not return cash through dividends.

Neither Affirm (AFRM) nor Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) pays a dividend this period — they may reinvest, use buybacks, or simply not return cash through dividends.

Dividend Metrics

Valuation

Both Affirm (AFRM) at 11.80 and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) at 14.36 land around their industries’ usual P/E ratio levels — neither is getting a clear earnings-multiple discount or premium versus peers.

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) at 3.18 is priced about in line with its industry on P/S ratio, while Affirm (AFRM) at 5.03 sits in the pricier quartile — AFRM costs more per dollar of sales.

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) at 1.72 is valued about in line with its industry on P/B ratio, while Affirm (AFRM) at 4.01 carries an above-peer premium to book — AFRM is pricier on assets.

Valuation Metrics