New York, June 18, 2026, 05:03 EDT
- SoFi was indicated higher before the bell after CEO Anthony Noto disclosed another open-market stock purchase.
- The move comes after a weaker Wednesday close and a hawkish Federal Reserve backdrop for rate-sensitive fintech lenders.
- U.S. stock markets are set to close Friday for Juneteenth, making Thursday the final regular trading session of the week.
SoFi Technologies shares rose in pre-market trade on Thursday after Chief Executive Anthony Noto disclosed a fresh purchase of company stock, giving the beaten-down fintech name a company-specific lift before a shortened U.S. trading week.
The stock was quoted at $18.02 at 5:00 a.m. ET, up 3.44% from Wednesday’s regular-session close of $17.42, according to Public.com data. Pre-market trading means orders placed before the regular Nasdaq session; it often has thinner volume and wider price swings than normal trading.
Why now: the buy landed as investors reassessed consumer-finance and growth stocks after the Federal Reserve kept rates at 3.5% to 3.75% and traders increased bets that the next move could be a hike, not a cut. Higher rates can weigh on lenders by crimping borrower demand, lifting funding costs and pressuring valuation multiples.
A Form 4 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed Noto bought 13,888 SoFi common shares on June 16 at a weighted-average price of $18.0578. The filing, the standard SEC ownership-change report for insiders, said the trades were made between $18.025 and $18.070 a share and lifted his direct holdings to 11,960,507 shares.
The purchase was not a one-off. Benzinga reported that Noto has bought more than $2.2 million of SoFi shares in 2026 across five open-market purchases, including the latest roughly $251,000 buy. Insider buying is often read by traders as a confidence signal, though the filing itself does not say why the executive bought.
SoFi’s operating story remains growth-heavy. The company said in April that first-quarter net revenue rose 43% to $1.1 billion, net income more than doubled to $166.7 million, and members increased 35% to 14.7 million. Noto said at the time the quarter showed “durable growth and strong returns.” Q4 Capital
Management also kept a full-year 2026 outlook calling for adjusted net revenue of about $4.655 billion, adjusted EBITDA of about $1.6 billion and adjusted earnings per share of about 60 cents. Adjusted EBITDA is a profit measure that strips out interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and some other items; investors use it to compare operating performance, but it is not the same as net income.
The competitive read-through is mixed. SoFi is often traded alongside other credit-sensitive fintech names such as Affirm and Upstart, whose latest available quotes showed sharper pressure than SoFi’s regular close. That makes Noto’s filing the cleaner near-term catalyst for SoFi rather than a broad fintech bid.
But the risk is plain enough. If rates stay higher or rise again, loan growth and credit quality could come under closer scrutiny. SoFi also reported that its Technology Platform segment revenue fell 27% year over year in the first quarter after a large client moved off the platform, a reminder that not every part of the business is moving in the same direction.
Thursday’s tape may be jumpy. Nasdaq’s regular session runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern time, and the exchange is scheduled to close Friday, June 19, for Juneteenth. That leaves investors one full session to price the insider buy, the Fed shift and any positioning before the long weekend.
