Shopify Raises Outlook, Sales Beat Estimates
Bloomberg
Nov 03, 2015
(Bloomberg) -- Shopify Inc., the Canadian e-commerce software maker that sold shares in an initial public offering in May, raised its revenue forecast after beating analysts’ estimates in its second quarter as a listed company.
The company increased its full-year revenue guidance to a range of $194 million to $196 million, after third-quarter sales soared 93 percent to $52.8 million, topping the $47.6 million average of predictions compiled by Bloomberg. The net loss was 6 cents a share, Ottawa-based Shopify said Wednesday in a statement, in line with estimates.
“I would characterize it as an amazing quarter,” Terry Tillman, an Atlanta-based analyst at Raymond James, said on a conference call with company executives. Shopify had more than 200,000 customers at the end of the period, up from more than 175,000 at the end of the last quarter.
Shopify is seeking to convince small and medium-sized businesses to make it a central part of how they sell goods online by providing tools for website design, marketing, shipping and payments. It allows customers to integrate with Amazon.com Inc.’s warehouses and sell their goods through “buy buttons” on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. It has also begun going after larger brands like Tesla Motors Inc. and Red Bull GmbH.
“We don’t really care how buyers find the product; what we want is there to be a Shopify store behind it,” Chief Executive Officer Tobi Lutke said on the conference call.
Shopify fell 3.3 percent to $30.39 at 10:44 a.m. in New York after earlier rising as much 7.9 percent to $33.93, the biggest advance in a month. Through Tuesday, the shares had increased 85 percent since the company’s IPO in May.
Some investors may be booking gains, said Arvind Ramnani, an analyst at Gordon Haskett Research Advisors LLC. The stock is volatile in general, he said.
“This pullback is probably fairly short lived,” Ramnani said.