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Wall Street says “neutral,” the market hears “maybe nice”
Shopify stock popped Monday after Cantor Fitzgerald's Deepak Mathivanan reiterated a Neutral rating but bumped the price target from $145 to $158. Not exactly a fireworks show, but in stock-land, even a small target hike can act like espresso.
The shares were trading 1.33% higher at $173.13 in premarket, which tells you the market is still willing to pay up for the name even when analysts are trying to sound like the responsible adult in the room.
The AI shopping angle is doing some heavy lifting
This isn't just about one analyst note. Shopify has also been leaning hard into its Meta partnership, where Meta's personal AI agent, Muse, can browse and buy across Shopify-powered stores using Shop Pay. That kind of integration plays right into the whole "agentic shopping" storyline — basically, let the bots do the browsing so humans can spend money while pretending to save time.
Shopify's own management has been feeding the narrative too, pointing to a threefold increase in AI-driven traffic and orders during its second-quarter earnings call. Stronger conversion rates and growing use of Sidekick suggest the company isn't just sprinkling "AI" on the slide deck for vibes.
The bigger trade is still momentum vs. valuation
The stock is sitting well above its key moving averages, which is trader-speak for "buyers are still in charge." But there's a catch: RSI is up at 73.47, so the stock is also flashing overbought. Translation: the trend looks good, but any stumble could get punished because the valuation is already wearing a tux.
Shopify is still scheduled to report quarterly earnings on November 3rd, and analysts expect EPS of 46 cents on $3.75 billion in revenue. That sets up the usual growth-stock question: can the business keep growing fast enough to justify the premium, or does the chart need to take a breather first?
Big picture: Shopify is still one of the market's favorite AI-adjacent growth stories — just don't confuse that with "cheap."