Klarna Is Up 15% Today: Is It Outperforming Other BNPL Stocks Like Affirm and Sezzle?

Shares of Klarna Group (NYSE:KLAR) are up astir 15% intraday successful Thursday greeting trading, changing hands adjacent $15.80 aft a anterior adjacent of $13.69. The popular comes against an different quiescent league for the broader bargain now, wage aboriginal (BNPL) group.

By contrast, Affirm Holdings (NASDAQ:AFRM) banal is up 2% astatine $64.61, and Sezzle (NASDAQ:SEZL) banal is up 1% to $103.48. On a single-day basis, Klarna banal is decisively starring the BNPL pack.

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Yet, the header question deserves a much honorable reply erstwhile the timeframe expands. Today's enactment doesn't undo what has been a hard agelong for Klarna banal since its NYSE debut.

Reaction to Klarna's Earnings

Today's determination successful Klarna banal is simply a absorption to the company's Q1 2026 report. Klarna delivered a beardown 4th with gross of $1 cardinal (up 44% year-over-year) and adjusted operating nett of $68 million, a monolithic plaything from $3 cardinal successful the year-ago quarter. Gross Merchandise Volume reached $33.7 cardinal (up 33% YoY), with US GMV up 39% and planetary up 31%.

Furthermore, Klarna turned the bottommost enactment positive: operating income of $17 cardinal versus a $90 cardinal nonaccomplishment a twelvemonth ago, and nett income of $1 cardinal versus a $99 cardinal nett loss. Active consumers grew to 119 cardinal (up 21% YoY) and merchants surpassed 1 cardinal (up 49% YoY).

The "Fair Financing" big-ticket installment merchandise was a standout, with GMV up 138% YoY, portion the Klarna Card reached 5 cardinal progressive users crossed 16 countries. Klarna's absorption reiterated full-year 2026 guidance and issued Q2 guidance of $35.5-36.5 cardinal GMV, $960 cardinal to $1 cardinal successful revenue, and adjusted operating income of $30-50 million.

Peers Tell a Very Different YTD Story

Zoom out, however, and Klarna banal isn't outperforming its peers arsenic it's down 46% twelvemonth to day (YTD). Sezzle shares are up 59% YTD, pursuing Sezzle's Q1 2026 beat-and-raise that lifted its FY2026 EPS usher to $5.10.