Shopify shares down after company reports light guidance

KEY POINTS

• Shopify's quarterly results topped estimates, but guidance was light.
• The stock fell in early trading.

An employee works at Shopify's headquarters in Ottawa, Ontario in Canada.

Chris Wattie | Reuters

Shopify shares closed down 13.4% on Tuesday after the Canadian e-commerce company reported better-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter but gave mixed guidance for the current period.

Here's how the company did for the quarter compared with consensus expectations from LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv:

• Earnings per share: 34 cents adjusted vs. 31 cents expected
• Revenue: $2.14 billion vs. $2.08 billion

Jeff Hoffmeister, Shopify's CFO, attributed the strong results to more products being sold on its platform. Gross merchandise volume, or the total volume of merchandise sold on the platform, increased 23% to $75.1 billion — above the $72.1 billion expected by analysts, according to StreetAccount.

Shopify's light first-quarter guidance overshadowed the earnings and revenue beat. The company said it expects free cash flow margin to be in the high single digits, below Wall Street's projected 13.6%.

In a research note published Tuesday, Wedbush analysts highlighted that Shopify's guidance implies operating income "well below our estimates and consensus." The company's forecast implies adjusted operating income of $178 million, while consensus estimates are for $382 million, the analysts said. Wedbush has a neutral rating on Shopify shares.

Shopify called for first-quarter revenue to grow at a "low-twenties percentage rate," which it said would translate into a year-over-year growth rate in the mid- to high-20s when adjusting for the sale of its logistics business. In May, the company offloaded its last-mile Deliverr and fulfillment units to Flexport.

Net income for the quarter was $657 million, or 51 cents a share, compared with a loss of $623 million, or a loss of 49 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.