Shopify (NYSE:SHOP) shares raced up more than 8% when it became the centre of research attention for brokers at both Wedbush and Mackie on Wednesday.
Mackie Research reiterated a “Buy” recommendation and maintained the 12-month share price target at $60 on the Ontario-based e-platform.
Mackie described Shopify as “one of the most exciting publicly listed Canadian technology companies we have come across in nearly a decade of following Canadian tech. Q4 results earlier this morning were strong across the board. While operating loss guidance may give some pause, our long-term enthusiasm is undiminished.”
Meanwhile, Wedbush said it was maintaining an Outperform and price target of $50.
Revenue of $130.4mln beat consensus expectations of $121.6mln and was well ahead of the guidance range of $120-$122mln, Wedbush highlighted.
“Merchant count on the SHOP platform grew to 377.5K (better than our expectation of 350K) as sequential net additions reaccelerated to 52K from a previous quarterly run rate of 25K. GMV grew 94% to $5.5 billion and take rate grew to 1.34%, up from 1.3% in Q3 due to increased participation of Shopify Payments by the merchants on the platform,” Wedbush said in a note.
“Company issued revenue guidance for FY17 between $580-600mln representing growth of 51.5% at the midpoint and above consensus expectations of $563.3mln. The company also issued guidance for adjusted operating loss between $(18)-(22) mln,” it added.
Shopify shares were up 8.2% to $60.68.
Staying with tech, Luxoft Holding (NYSE:LXFT) was maintained as an outperform with price target of $67 by brokers at Wedbush.
“FY18's results will feature accelerating organic growth (from 12%), "at least 20%" total revenue growth, while sustaining non-GAAP EBIT margin range (17-19%). We believe recent UBS and Deutsche Bank contract renewals provide management with improving revenue visibility for FY18, while 100%+ Y/Y growth in High Performance Accounts,” Wedbush said in a note on Wednesday.
But Luxoft shares were not so lucky. They were down 4.7% at $57.60 on Wednesday.