Shopify's stock charges up after an 'epic' Black Friday

By Tomi Kilgore

Stock heads for 20-month high, with Cyber Monday expected to be even bigger

Shares of Shopify Inc. charged higher Monday, fueled by data showing online holiday shopping got off to a strong start on Black Friday.

"Another epic, record-breaking Black Friday in the books for Shopify merchants," said Shopify President Harley Finkelstein. "The world showed up for our merchants, and the excitement is only building, with Cyber Monday still to come."

Data from Adobe Analytics backed up Shopify's assessment, as they showed a record $9.8 billion was spent online on Friday.

The e-commerce software company's stock (SHOP) shot up 5.3% in afternoon trading, to put it on track for the highest close since March 2022.

The stock has rocketed 57% so far in November, which would be its best monthly performance since the company went public in May 2015. The current monthly record was the 51.7% rally on April 2020.

Shopify said global sales of its merchants reached a record $4.1 billion on Black Friday, up 22% from a year ago. Collective sales peaked at $4.2 million per minute at 12:01 p.m. Eastern.

The average cart was $110.71, and the best-selling merchandise included clothing, personal care and jewelry.

Meanwhile, Adobe Analytics said consumers spent a record $9.8 billion online on Friday, up 7.5% from a year ago, and said Cyber Monday is expected to remain the season's biggest online shopping day at $12 billion, up 6.1% from last year.

Oppenheimer analyst Ken Fong said his analysis of Shopify's Live Clock over the weekend suggested that the company is on track to deliver Black Friday-Cyber Monday sales growth of more than 20%. Cyber Monday, which makes up about 30% of BFCM sales, remains.

Sales on Monday "would have to decelerate considerably," Fong said, for total BFCM sales to fall below Wall Street expectations for gross merchandise value growth of more than 17%.

"We believe strong BFCM trends, an extra selling day, and an earlier shopping season (initially seen as a negative) positions [Shopify] for GMV outperformance," Fong wrote in a note to clients.

Among the Amplify Online Retail ETF's (IBUY) other better performers, shares of buy-now-pay-later operator Affirm Holdings Inc.'s stock (AFRM) jumped 10.9% toward a 15-month high, and e-commerce software developer BigCommerce Holdings Inc.'s stock (BIGC) advanced 0.8%.

In comparison, the online retail ETF gained 0.5% and the S&P 500 index inched less than 0.1% lower in afternoon trading.

-Tomi Kilgore

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11-27-23 1412ET

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