"The AI initiatives are truly exciting," said one investor familiar with Shopify’s recent moves after the stock soared almost 9% on Monday, reaching an intraday peak of $123.95. This surge came despite the broader market retreat, with the Nasdaq slipping 0.84% and the S&P 500 down 0.15%. The sharp rise was notable especially since trading volume was just 1.2 million shares, far below the usual 10.49 million average, signaling that the price action wasn’t driven by heavy selling or buying.
Wall Street is bracing for Shopify's Q2 earnings report due August 5. Analysts expect earnings per share to rise slightly to $0.37 from $0.35 a year ago, while revenue is projected to jump substantially to around $3.44 billion, up from $2.68 billion in the previous year’s quarter. Shopify’s own forecast ranges between $3.40 billion and $3.46 billion in revenue. Investors seem to be positioning themselves ahead of these figures, betting on continued growth even in a turbulent market environment.
The momentum behind Shopify’s stock got a fresh boost from CEO Tobias Lütke’s recent posts on X, where he revealed the company’s use of NVIDIA’s DGX Workstation to power AI workloads. Lütke highlighted how this advanced setup is driving their efforts to rebuild Shopify’s Liquid programming language using AI models running at an impressive 40 tokens per second. Such hands-on AI development has captured market attention, reflecting the growing investor appetite for companies leveraging artificial intelligence in tangible ways.
Analyst sentiment remains mostly positive, with a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target near $157.69. Jefferies recently upgraded Shopify to a Buy with a price target of $160, while others like Citigroup hold Buy ratings but with slightly varied price targets. The stock currently trades above key short- to medium-term moving averages but still sits about 6.8% below the critical 200-day moving average at $133.83, suggesting this rally could be an early stage of an upward trend rather than a full breakout. Resistance is expected near $131, with support around $104.50 offering a safety net for dips.
