Shopify 15% Lower Following Earnings Miss

Shopify (Nasdaq: SHOP) shares were 15% lower following the company's Q1 earnings miss and $2.1 billion acquisition of logistics company, Deliverr. Another matter weighing on shares was the company warning that first-half revenue would be down compared to last year due to a spike in sales during the pandemic.

After being one of the best-performing stocks in the entire market, Shopify has given back a big chunk of its post-pandemic gains. Overall, the stock is down 77% from it's all-time highs set in November of last year. Shares are now only 33% above what they were in March 2020. Even after these losses, the stock remains quite expensive with a $55 billion market cap and little under $5 billion in revenue.

Inside the Numbers

In Q1, Shopify reported adjusted earnings of $0.20 per share which fell short of expectations of a profit of $0.63 per share. Revenue was up 22% to $1.2 billion which was also slightly short of expectations of $1.24 billion.

Deliverr is a startup that provides fulfillment services to eCommerce vendors selling on major platforms like Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), Walmart (NYSE: WMT), and eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY). Currently, it handles about 1 million orders per month. Shopify sees the acquisition as being accretive as it increases the number of services it offers for merchants.

An interesting thing happened on Twitter (NYSE: TWTR), when CEO Tobias Lutke made negative comments about Wall Street analysts who were downgrading the stock and issuing bearish commentary. Lutke questioned whether or not anyone was keeping track of the accuracy of Wall Street analysts.

The reality is less about analyst and more of a "vibe shift" in the markets as absurd as it sounds. But, it's the same reason that oil stocks are now trading with momentum, while tech stocks are crashing. And, it's an inverse of the last decade.

No better example than the market's reaction to the $2.1 billion acquisition. This wasn't as meaningful of an amount for the company a few months ago. It's also not surprising that investors had a negative reaction to the news as the old playbook of being rewarded for revenue growth is no longer applicable. Instead, companies are targeting free cash flow. Thus, there has been weakness in nearly every e-commerce and Internet stock.