Scalper1 News
Shopify ( SHOP ) was upgraded by Pacific Crest Securities on the confidence that strong momentum will continue at the e-commerce company. Pacific Crest analyst Brendan Barnicle upgraded Shopify to an overweight rating and set a price target of 35. Shopify stock was up 3.5%, near 26.75, during afternoon trading in the stock market today . The stock hit a low of 18.58 on Jan. 15 and is up 44% since then. “When we initiated coverage of Shopify we had three concerns: valuation, margins and competition,” Barnicle wrote in his research note. “During the past year, all three of those concerns have declined sufficiently to compel recommending Shopify at current levels.” Shopify provides a cloud-based e-commerce platform that businesses use to build websites and sell goods online and across multiple sales channels, including mobile and social media. The Canadian company raised $131 million on its May 20 initial pubic offering, pricing 7.7 million shares at 17. It reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 17 and provided guidance above expectations. Shopify reported Q4 revenue of $70.2 million, up 99% year over year, and a smaller loss than expected. Revenue has grown at double- and triple-digit rates for the past three years, year over year. The consensus estimate for Q1 in a Thomson Reuters poll of analysts is revenue growth of 79% to $67 million, and a loss of 9 cents per share, minus items. “While competition remains, it seems to have stagnated,” Barnicle wrote. “Shopify is continuing to robustly add new customers to its platform.” He said larger e-commerce software providers servicing the high-end of the market, such as NetSuite ( N ) and Demandware ( DWRE ), are unlikely to move down-market and compete with Shopify in the small-to-midsize business market. He said e-commerce platforms from NetSuite and Demandware are often too expensive and require too many resources to be effective for smaller merchants. “However, Shopify Plus competes for enterprise customers and the company is interested in moving up-market,” Barnicle wrote. Shopify says it was among the first e-commerce providers to add the ability to sell over the leading social media platforms, including Facebook ( FB ) and Twitter ( TWTR ). More than 25% of Shopify merchants have enabled social media selling. In November, Shopify announced a partnership with Facebook that lets shoppers buy Shopify merchants’ products through their Facebook pages. In September, Amazon ( AMZN ) selected Shopify to be its preferred platform for helping small and midsize retailers build and manage online stores. The plan lets Shopify businesses use Amazon’s payment system and other services, part of a plan that Amazon announced a year ago to ultimately shut down its Amazon Webstore business, which provides a similar service. Shopify stock has moved up nine of the last 10 days, and is above its key 50-day line. It gets a not-high IBD Composite Rating of 57 out of a possible 99, factoring in the string of losses in its quarterly reports, and other metrics. Scalper1 News
Scalper1 News