Shopify beats expectations, hikes guidance, but stock skids
Canadian e-commerce giant Shopify on Tuesday raised its revenue guidance for the 2018 fiscal year after reporting that first-quarter revenues rose 68 per cent to $201.3 million.
The company’s adjusted net income per share was $0.04, beating consensus estimate from analysts of a loss of $0.05 per share.
The stock, however, skid in morning trading, down 7.5 per cent at $159.23.
Chief Financial Officer Amy Shapero, who joined the company in early April, said the company now expects revenue to be between $1 billion and $1.1 billion for the year, up from the $970 million to $990 million estimate that the company delivered in February. The company posted revenues of $673.3 million for 2017.
Shopify is an Ottawa-based tech unicorn which provides an e-commerce platform that helps merchants run their online stores and manage shipping across multiple channels.
In the first quarter of 2018, the company expanded online shopping through Instagram from the U.S. and in March the company launched an integration with Google Pay which allows for a faster, easier checkout experience on Shopify stores.
Speaking on the earnings call, CEO Tobias Lutke hinted that there are more announcements coming soon, at the company’s Unite 2018 conference next week.
By selling stock in the first quarter of this year, Shopify improved its cash position from $938 million at the end of December to $1.58 billion today.
On the earnings call, before taking any questions Shapero told analysts that they’re just going to have to wait and see what the company does with that money.
“We will ask you now to stay tuned on that front, as the year progresses,” Shapero said.