By Sam Boughedda
Shopify (NYSE:SHOP) was upgraded to Market Outperform from Market Perform with a $65 per share price target at JMP Securities on Wednesday.
JMP analysts explained that after the firm analyzed the OpEx structure across the website builders, assessed third-party website traffic data, and spoke to professional website developers across the platforms, it reaffirmed their view that Shopify is the leader in commerce enablement and continues to take share.
"Shopify GMV estimates have upside, while there is room for greater expense discipline. While we acknowledge macro remains a risk for 2H23 discretionary consumer spending and Shopify is in an investment cycle with SFN, the size of SFN investments are less than we initially feared and we believe there is upside to our GMV projections as Shopify is gaining traction with larger enterprise businesses," the analysts wrote. "This as our OpEx analysis suggests Shopify has the opportunity to execute on cost synergies with Deliverr and third-party traffic data suggests it continues to take share."
The analysts upgraded the shares as JMP expects estimates to move higher through 2023, with the price target "justified given long-term tailwinds around the broader mix-shift to digital, its leadership position within commerce enablement, and potential additional product sales including advertising."