Shopify Becomes Canada’s Second-Biggest Stock
Shopify Becomes Canada’s Second-Biggest Stock
(Bloomberg) -- Shopify Inc. skyrocketed again Monday, surpassing one of Canada’s largest banks to become the second-most valuable company on the nation’s stock market.
The e-commerce company’s shares jumped 6.7%, pushing its market value to C$103.9 billion ($73.5 billion). Toronto-Dominion Bank, which was second to Royal Bank of Canada on Friday, rose 0.1% Monday to close with a market value of C$103.3 billion.
Investors piled into the tech stock last week after its Chief Technology Officer Jean-Michel Lemieux said the Ottawa-based company was seeing U.S. Black Friday-type of traffic as it brings “thousands” of businesses online during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Chief Executive Office Tobi Lutke said Monday he wasn’t watching the move.
“I never look or care about stock price,” Lutke said in a Twitter post. “I work on the real market value of the company. Totally different.”
Shopify jumped for an eighth straight day, its longest winning streak since 2017. It’s the best performing stock on the S&P/TSX Composite Index this year, making it more valuable than Brookfield Asset Management Inc., pipeline giant Enbridge Inc., Canadian National Railway Co. and Bank of Nova Scotia.
Priced In?
“Despite the likely overall negative impact on discretionary retail from the pandemic, with so much physical commerce closed, Shopify merchants should be able to take share during this period, even if of a smaller pie,” said Wedbush analyst Ygal Arounian said in a report published Monday.
Still the analyst added the shares were already pricing in both short- and long-term benefits from the pandemic.
Shopify will begin providing cash advances directly to online merchants in Canada, Chief Operating Officer Harley Finkelstein said in an interview with the Financial Post. Previously, Shopify Capital was only available in the U.S. and U.K.
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