Shopify price target raised to $1,100 from $820 at Baird

Baird analyst Colin Sebastian raised the firm's price target on Shopify to $1,100 from $820 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares. The stock closed Wednesday up $66.21, or 7%, to $1,016.64. The analyst says that as Shopify hit the symbolic $1,000 share price milestone on "Canada Day," he remains "comfortable" with above-consensus revenue and earnings estimates. Channel checks suggest strong new merchant growth, accelerating gross merchandise volume, faster adoption of Shopify Payments, and increasing monetization from services, such as Fulfillment, Sebastian tells investors in a research note. While there may be higher small- to mid-sized business churn and "some lingering category headwinds," these are "temporary speed bumps" that will not detract from the broader structural changes in retail benefiting the platform, adds the analyst.