Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Shopify Call Options (NASDAQ:SHOP)

Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP) (TSE:SHOP) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Investors bought 55,560 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 30% compared to the typical volume of 42,578 call options.

Shopify Stock Performance

SHOP traded up $0.65 during trading on Thursday, hitting $114.67. 9,028,951 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,616,169. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $156.24 and a 200 day simple moving average of $151.25. The firm has a market cap of $149.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 84.94, a P/E/G ratio of 3.51 and a beta of 2.83. Shopify has a 1 year low of $69.84 and a 1 year high of $182.19.

Shopify (NASDAQ:SHOP) (TSE:SHOP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The software maker reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.24 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.75 billion. Shopify had a return on equity of 11.72% and a net margin of 16.65%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Shopify will post 1.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Shopify in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,794,952,000. Jennison Associates LLC increased its holdings in Shopify by 64.3% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 18,923,431 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,812,211,000 after buying an additional 7,403,821 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its stake in Shopify by 5,193.6% in the second quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,066,884 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $238,419,000 after buying an additional 2,027,839 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Shopify by 19.9% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,731,795 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,247,007,000 after buying an additional 1,781,530 shares during the period. Finally, Picton Mahoney Asset Management lifted its holdings in Shopify by 246,359.0% during the second quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 1,759,717 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $202,146,000 after buying an additional 1,759,003 shares during the period. 69.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SHOP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $185.00 price target (up from $160.00) on shares of Shopify in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. Raymond James Financial restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Shopify in a report on Monday, December 1st. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $192.00 price target (up from $165.00) on shares of Shopify in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Shopify in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Shopify in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Twenty-five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nineteen have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $171.70.

About Shopify

Shopify is a Canadian commerce technology company that provides a cloud-based platform for businesses to create, manage and scale online and physical retail stores. Its core offering is a software-as-a-service e-commerce platform that enables merchants to build customizable storefronts, manage product catalogs, process orders, and handle inventory. Shopify also supports omnichannel selling through integrated point-of-sale (POS) systems for in-person transactions.

Beyond storefront software, Shopify offers a range of merchant services and tools designed to simplify commerce operations.