Shares of SoFi Technologies Inc. SOFI, +4.54% were up more than 3% in Wednesday afternoon trading after President Joe Biden officially announced his intent to cancel $10,000 of student loans for borrowers making under $125,000 a year and to extend a moratorium on student-loan payments through the end of 2022. Mizuho analyst Dan Dolev called the ultimate announcement “a positive for SOFI…as the ongoing extensions have weighed on sentiment and fundamentals.” He wrote that the extension of the pause on loan payments is “roughly in-line to slightly ahead of management’s plans,” while the new December deadline “can help improve clarity, and may also result in a pull-forward in refi demand in 4Q22, similar to what occurred in late 4Q21,” when there was “accelerating demand ahead of the then-January federal student loan payment moratorium deadline and anticipated rate increases in 2022.” Jefferies analyst John Hecht wrote that while “many details remain pending,” the news “removes an overhang, whereby refinancing volumes were previously impacted by those waiting for an announcement on federal debt forgiveness.”
